


Just an Escort Mission

by mindlessdreams



Category: Guardians of the Galaxy (Movies)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Canon-Typical Violence, Childhood Trauma, Drinking, Fluff, Kid Peter Quill, M/M, Parent Kraglin Obfonteri, Parent Yondu Udonta, Theft, questionable parenting
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-08-26
Updated: 2018-10-03
Packaged: 2018-12-19 05:05:43
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 7
Words: 44,136
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11890647
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mindlessdreams/pseuds/mindlessdreams
Summary: Stakar contacts Yondu and gives him a simple mission commissioned by a man named Ego.Ego fell in love with a terran woman who tragically passed away, and left their son, called Peter, all alone.Ego is sadly unable to get the boy himself and just wants his child with him as soon as possible, but Yondu has a feeling that it's not going to be that simple at all.





	1. Nothin` but a good time

 

“Correct me if i'm wrong here” Yondu said to the arcturian on the communications screen “but did you not lay down a rule against this sorta thing for the entire ravager clan _over 50_ years ago?”

The bridge of the ravager ship “The Eclector” was empty except for its captain and first mate. It was the middle of the “night cycle” as people liked to call it, even if people worked at all hours on the ship, this was the time most of the crew chose to sleep.  

“I even vividly remember this was something you said was _unfergivable_ ” the centaurian commented matter-of-factly.

“That is true” Stakar Ogord shrugged on the screen, “but this is just an escort mission...and I did hear about that dead engine of yours.”

“Who the hell told you `bout tha?” Yondu then turned a suspicious glance at his first mate, who was sitting in the captain's seat, ordering items that needed to be restocked when they docked at a trading post in around half a day.

It was true that a few days ago one of the two engines powering “The Eclector” had, in a ooze of black smoke, made a disturbingly large rumble and then just exploded. They had checked the security cameras but no trace of foul play had been discovered. After putting out the resulting fire, they had tried to repair the mangled bits but it had ultimately proven to be impossible. They would have to buy a new engine, as the Eclector could not work at full capacity like this.

“Replacing it it will be expensive” Stakar continued , “All you have to do is pick up a child named Peter Quill from the planet Terra and bring him to his father. Nothing too hard.”

“Who the hell would pay that much just fer “escortin`” some kid.” Yondu asked in disbelief but then his tone shifted to accusing, “Is this some sort of test you are layin` on me, Stakar?”

“If he tells ya to do it he can't be mad when ya do” Kraglin added from behind him, making the centaurian turn to him with a scowl.

“Mind yer own damn business, boy” Yondu growled and an automatic “Yessir” came in reply as the captain turned back to Stakar.

“The man that contacted me goes by the name Ego” Yondu narrowed his red eyes but did not comment. Stakar took this as his queue to continue, “According to Ego, the terran woman that gave birth to his child was diagnosed with some illness. He had promised to fetch her and the boy after some time but now that he has learned of the woman's death, he just wants the boy with him as soon as possible”

“Ego not gettin’ the boy himself?” Yondu asked lightly, “ _Ravagers_ are his best option?” 

This was what felt wrong to Yondu, if this "Ego" had been on the planet Terra before, which he probably had if he had a kid with a terran, what was stopping him? If this Peter was his boy and so damn important to him, why not just go get him. 

Mercenary work usually came from people who were too lazy, too cowardly or too few to do the work themselves, but picking up a single child seemed quite hassle free and not really worth hiring a third party. Not to mention how potentially traumatising it would be to be picked up by complete strangers. 

“Ego said that he cannot leave his planet for a while, and said that if we could save him the trip he would pay handsomely and in advance.” Stakar looked at Yondu expectantly, clearly waiting for him to say if he wanted the job or not.

Yondu nodded to himself and sucked his teeth, “Which begs the question…Why ain't ya takin this`un yerself.”

Stakar pinched the bridge of his nose and groaned something that sounded awfully like “suspicious brat” before he held his hand up indifferently, “You need a new engine. I offer a solution. Call me when you have an answer!” The image then disappeared and Yondu continued to glare at the black screen.

An easy mission for enough units to fix the engine sounded too good to be true and if it was true, where the hell did Stakar get off throwing a _pity_ mission his way. He was captain of his own faction, he absolutely did _not_ need help with shit like this!

“We doin’ it or what?” The lean man in the captain's seat inquired, powering down the program, leaning back into the seat and crossing his arms. 

“I told you to mind yer own damn business!” was the grumpy reply Yondu gave him, walking over to the window and looking out at the purple nebula they were passing. This all felt wrong and he could not quite put his finger on why. 

“Yes sir” The hraxian stood up and walked over to the ravager captain with a slightly annoyed expression on his face “and the welfare of the ship _is_ my business” 

Yondu did not turn to look at him but he glared at the reflection his first mate made in the window, Kraglin did not back off.

“Are ya really goin’ to refuse easy units just ‘cause you have some sort of _beef_ with Stakar?” he asked in carefully measured tones.

“Ain’t no beef! I don't need his help!” Yondu was clearly irritated at the very implication that Stakar though their faction could not get enough units to replace an engine without his help. It would take a little time and their ship would be a bit vulnerable but they could do it themselves no problem.

“If the other engine fails,” Kraglin said in a level tone as he ran a gloved hand through his red tinted mohawk, “which it could..seeing as its compensating for the one we lost, we are going to be vulnerable.” He was right, of course he was. Doing this mission would be good for the ship, the crew, and him. But help from Stakar was _not_ something he wanted to admit to needing.

“Fine” Yondu cut him off, turning to the hraxian with a resigned expression on his face “but this is suspicious, and I don't like it.”

“Noted, Captain” Kraglin smiled toothily, and walked over to the star map to find their destination. “Terra, huh.” Kralin entered the name on the navigation screen, bringing the little blue planet up on the star map. “Looks like it really out of the way, and they haven't even begun properly on space travel. They are not even aware of life on other planets." The planets information was limited but it seemed that they had had previous encounters with alien life that was not public knowledge, "...this asshole went there to get laid?”

“Bet he was lookin` ta impress with just being an alien or use the classic “do ya wanna see my spaceship?” line” Yondu grumbled as he called up Stakar. The all too familiar face appeared on screen with an amused “That was quick.”

Yondu kept it short, “Money up front so we can fix the engine”

Stakar grinned knowingly, “I already transferred the money to the mechanic at Irma, which was the closest of “our” mechanics so they are ready on your way back from Terra”

It was really very annoying that Stakar knew him that well, and..hold on.. “On our way _back!_?” Yondu shouted, “We need that engine or this is going ta take forever”

Stakar just shrugged, probably expecting Yondu to overreact. “I contacted the mechanic but they didn’t have a compatible engine for your ship, Zyl has ordered it and he will be ready when you come _back,_ yes.” 

“Fuckin` hell” Yondu sighed, “Fine... We`ll do it.” Stakar just grinned and with a wave of his hand he ended the call.

“If this turns out to be as suspicious as i think it is...” Yondu turned to Kraglin who had sat down to read up on the planet Terra, “I'll make you pay.”

“Who me?” Kraglin asked innocently, Yondu walked up behind him and placed his hands on the hraxians shoulders, squeezing them “You told him about the engine, so yes, _you.”_

“That a promise?” Kraglin smiled up at his captain and winked, a glint in his icy blue eyes.

“Aye” Yondu replied with a crooked smile, “You can be sure of that.”

* * *

The colony “Pife” was not too big, it mostly focused on trading and had around 9000 permanent residents. It`s faux climate was mild and had a tropical night vibe to it.

This was the only stop they would be making if they wanted the escort mission to be over quickly. Pife was open to anyone, and while it had relatively low regulations it was a surprisingly safe place.

The crew that wasn't on duty had gone out when they docked and probably would not be back until morning, most likely drunk or hungover. They had also welcomed four strong looking recruits that had asked to join when they docked. Horuz had checked their info, given them their new sleeping quarters and showed them around before returning to the bridge. 

Yondu himself had decided to stay on the ship, as he had heard Tullk drag Kraglin out with some of the others a few hours ago. Being a captain was, unfortunately, not just about ordering people around. So he decided to get some work done instead. 

When Yondu was done with most of the boring logistics management that  _usually_ fell to Kraglin, he heard absently that Horuz answered an internal call.

After a moment a "Captain" was directed at him and he replied the elder man with a mumbled, "Yea?"

“Captain...Several of the guys have been sent to the medic, including Obfonteri” Horuz looked a bit puzzled at the information the person on the other side of the call had given him, "something about a bar fight in a bar where no weapons were allowed."

“Say _what_ now?”

* * *

 

“Can somebody tell me, what the flark i'm lookin’ at?!” Yondu exclaimed as he entered the med bay where seven people in varying degrees of battered was getting checked by the doctors assistant or fixing themselves up.

His eyes were drawn to the chair where the doctor was stitching up his first mates left forearm. Kraglin looked a bit pale, and very drunk, but smiled at him with a small wave of his uninjured hand. Judging by the size of the cut he had probably lost a substantial amount of blood. What had happened?

“You should see the other guys, Cap!” Kin, a voldi girl with yellow feathers, piped up. There was a wave of drunken laughter from the other patients of the med bay, including Kraglin.

"Shut yer yaps!" the captain barked making the others fall silent, “and you!” Yondu turned to his first mate who sat up straight, smile disappearing when the captain pointed at him, “fuck happened to yer arm?”

“Bar fight” Kraglin mumbled, not really looking at the other man anymore but at least having the decency to sound embarrassed.

“Stab wound through the arm” the doctor mumbled, continuing to close the wound, “nuthin’ vital and the tendons somehow made it out unharmed but once this drunken dumbass sobers up, it's going to hurt like hell” 

"Unbelievable." Yondu hissed, not at all happy that Kraglin was injured but mostly annoyed by the fact that the hraxian was the one that was injured the most out of the people that had been in the fight. Kraglin was a trained assassin, and yet he had somehow gotten himself more hurt than Kin, a pint sized, sloshed voldi who was sporting nothing worse than a split lip and a beginning bruise the size of a meaty fist on her cheek.

Tullk, who had a slightly swollen nose and a shiner on his left eye walked up to him and in a low voice mumbled, "He ain't psychic, captain. None of us could have known that someone snuck a knife in there."

 

* * *

 

Tullk was the one who had dragged Kraglin out with himself and some other crewmembers for a drink, telling him that he was working way too much for someone his age.

Kraglin was originally supposed to start working on the budget and double check that they had acquired all the items they had ordered, but going out with his friends was slightly more alluring than paperwork.

Pife had an entire district full of bars that mostly catered to the visitors. Show bars, cheap bars, only female, only male and anything that was able to be decently profitable.

The group eventually decided on a “no weapons” bar, mostly because the bar had a “girls drink free” thing going on and the Voldi girls _really_ wanted in on that. They were currently saving units for their own M-ship and told the boys that they would just have to respect that they needed to get drunk as cheap as possible.

All kinds of weapons were checked at the entrance and you had to pass a weapons scanner but it was a much more relaxed atmosphere when you didn't have to worry about getting shot accidentally by some drunk asshole who didn't know how to put the safety on his blaster. Even the bottles, glasses and utensils were designed to be non harmful. This was supposed to be a place of relaxation and not violence.

The bar had a blue theme going on, low lights and atmospheric music that was not too loud. They were given a booth next to a aquarium that had colorful small fish swimming around which the girls though was "so totes adorable, guys". Nik and Jull had shared a look but quickly warmed up to the place when they saw a pretty waitress come sauntering past the table.

As the evening went on, they had a good time just chatting among themselves and the voldi sisters had eventually found some guys to tell them about how pretty they thought their feathers were. Oblo had somehow gotten the attention of a pretty viscardi, and they had retreated to another table to talk. 

Kraglin had just ordered a snack with his drink when, out of nowhere, some xandarian punk had walked over to their table and, without a word, punched Tullk in the face. Tullk had, naturally, responded accordingly by standing up and headbutting the little bastard. Kraglin stood up and saw that the xandarian was not alone. Eleven people with matching clothes was standing nearby, they seemed to be some sort of local gang that decided seven ravagers was easy prey.

They were wrong.

The gang attacked and suddenly there were kicks, punches, chairs and even snack bowls being thrown around as the other guests, waiters and waitresses ran for cover, some of them trying to get the bouncers. The bouncers saw that he had no chance in hell and decided, very wisely, to not get involved. 

The voldi sisters screeched out a battle cry and clawed at the fools that dared come too close to them. Tullk kicked the dazed xandarian in the chest, making him fall over a table and onto the floor. Kraglin got up from his seat, seeing out of the corner of his eye that the viscardi girl that had previously flirted with Oblo had him in a headlock as another xandarian were punching him in the face.

Kraglin ran over and vaulted over a table to grab the woman, putting her in a chokehold that forced her to let go of Oblo, who immediately charged on the xandarian that had previously taken such pleasure in punching him. "Ravager scum!" She coughed out before Kraglin rolled his eyes and slammed her head into the table next to them. She fell to the floor unconscious. 

Kraglin had been pretty drunk when it all begun but it was amazing how quickly you sobered up when a huge Kree ran at you with the intention of kicking your ass.

Kraglin ducked under the fist, planting a body shot in the gang member`s ribs. The kree cried out in anger and threw a haymaker but Kraglin used the others momentum to block it and responded with a uppercut.

The kree seemed dazed and the hraxian grabbed his shoulders, pulling him down and knocked the wind out of him as Kraglin slammed his knee into his torso. As he doubled over Kraglin went in for another shot at his jaw. The kree fell to his knees and Kraglin kicked him in the face, propelling the man into a nearby aquarium so hard that the glass broke, sending all the unfortunate little fish that lived there out onto the floor.

Looking at the big kree lying in a puddle of water and flopping fish made Kraglin chortle but out of the corner of his eye he registered something moving towards him.

The movement made him lift his left hand, someone had thrown something at him and he automatically tried to block it, gasping in surprise as a dagger stabbed straight through his arm.

A bit shocked he lowered his arm and grasped the butt of the knife with his right hand, pulling the dagger out quickly with a hiss of pain.

Looking in the direction the knife had come from, he saw the posh looking xandarian that had started the fight, hand still up after the throw.

He seemed to be a little bit surprised that a knife in the arm had not given a bigger reaction.

“This here is the problem with throwing yer only weapon...” Kraglin addressed the man, the blue stained dagger in his gloved hand, “you need to be damn sure you don't miss.”

The xandarian stepped back, raising his hands defensively and looking around for his posse, realising they would not be able to help him, he looked worried back to the man he had chosen to throw a knife at. “Um, look man...”

”because if you miss,” Kraglin continued as he stepped closer smiling creepily, “the other man has it.”

“I..I..didn't mean to...” the xandarian started before he decided to bolt from the murderous looking hraxian. Kraglin chuckled darkly and threw the knife, there was a satisfying gasp as the knife hit the rude little bastard in the back and he fell to the ground writhing in pain. 

Tullk ran over to him, looking like someone had gotten a good punch in on his nose but otherwise just a few scrapes, “Flark! I thought they checked everyone for weapons here”

“Apparently not” Kraglin drawled as he walked back to their table and picking up his, miraculously, almost full drink, downing it in one gulp and trying not to think about the numbness he felt in his arm.

Tullk reached out to have a look at the bleeding forearm but was rebuffed. “Come on, lad...yer bleeding pretty bad.”

The hraxian rolled his eyes, picked up a rag that had been used by one of the waiters and tied it around his forearm, he showed the crummy makeshift bandage to Tullk with a sour “happy now?” 

“Not really, no.” Tullk scratched his chin, still staring at the bleeding arm that the first mate had refused him to take a look at.

A pitiful snivel made them look down at the xandarian on the floor. “That looks like a umalglass knife." Tullk commented as they watched the prat trying futilely to reach the knife in his back.  "They can't really be detected by a cheap weapons scanner.” 

“umalglass, huh?” Kraglin then chuckled as he stepped over to the xandarian, placing a boot on his shoulder before bending down and grasping the knife, ”Probably good to have then.” There was a scream as it was torn out and the bastard finally slumped down, dead or unconscious. Who cared.

Kraglin inspected the green tinted blade and picked up a napkin, cleaning the blue blood off before sticking it in his boot. Waste not, want not.

Looking over the half destroyed bar, everyone in the group that had instigated the brawl was either passed out, trying to hide or lying dead. The staff looked a mix of annoyed and frightened and probably just wanted the ravagers to leave so they could clean up the horrific mess.  

“This was fun” Zaco chirped as she walked up to Tullk and Kraglin, licking her bloodied lip. Her feathers looked a little bit ruffled and her shirt had a large tear in it but other than that she seemed fine.

“Been awhile since I got in a good fistfight” agreed Tullk, the other ravagers that came with them gathered.

“Yer bleedin’ all over the place, Krags!” Oblo commented as he saw the wounded arm, "you aight?"

“It's nothin..just need a few stitches” Kraglin replied as he walked to the exit. "Are you sure?" Nik asked as the others in their group followed.

Kraglin was sure he would feel the pain soon, but he was not going to complain when the alcohol and rush from the fight was keeping him relatively painless. He put pressure over the wound and hissed low through his teeth, feeling the warm and sticky blue blood staining his glove through the rag. Nevermind, it fucking hurt.

“Great security y`all have here” Tullk growled to the bouncer who wisely did not say a word, they had fucked up majorly by overlooking that knife.

Retrieving their guns and knives, checking that nothing was missing they walked back to the docking area.

This was going to be fun to explain to their captain.

* * *

 

As Tullk told Yondu what had happened, the others in the med bay decided to slink off. Deciding to lick their wounds somewhere else instead of in the same room as an increasingly angry centaurian whose yaka arrow had started to glow faintly.

“Who the hell gets stabbed in a no weapons bar, eh?” Yondu growled, directing his anger towards a slightly confused looking Kraglin “are ya suddenly a helpless pushover when yer wasted now?”

“We all took some hits” Kraglin tried to defend himself, actually looking a bit distressed “these things happen...” but he fell silent again when he saw the death glare the captain gave him.

The doctor finished the stitches and poured some antibacterial gel on, making the first mate grimace. He then put a bandage over as the captain just stood there with a scowl, seemingly waiting for Kraglin to say something. Kraglin on the other hand did not know what to say. If Yondu was disappointed in him for getting hurt that was alright, but he couldn't really do anything about it.

The doctor told Kraglin to hold out his hand. He put three pills in Kraglin`s palm, “these will help you to sleep so get to your bunk, but come see me when you wake up.”

The hraxian did not protest, throwing the pills into his mouth and chewing them as he stood up and left the room, trying to avoid looking at the pissed off captain. Yondu did not follow him out of the med bay and the walk up to his room was mostly quiet.

His room was right next to Yondu`s and most of the time he slept in there, but he was pretty sure he did not want to deal with the man again tonight.

He was not quite sure why the captain had been acting so weird over a mere flesh wound but decided to go to his own room. It was not very big, just enough for one person and a few possessions, just like all of the other crew members rooms. Naturally, Yondu's room was by far the biggest. 

He entered and threw his blood stained jacket on his empty desk and sat down on his bunk, looking out the bull's-eye window.

Pife was still brimming with lights, and he yawned, already feeling the pain medication starting to fog his mind.

He swallowed dryly, beginning to undress and while removing his boots and pants he felt more and more tired. As he was about to remove his shirt he felt dizzy and his vision completely faded to black.

He passed out lying with one leg touching the floor, still half dressed and over the covers.

* * *

 

When he opened his eyes again he was still in bed, just wearing his underwear and lying under the covers. "What da hell did Doc give me?" he mumbled, looking around the room confused. His mouth felt like he had stuck his tongue in a bucket of sand and he noticed a bottle of water on top of his desk and he practically crawled out of bed to get to it.

He popped the cap on it and downed the water in big gulps, still feeling thirsty even as the bottle turned empty. 

The bull's-eye window showed that they had left Pife and was once again out in space and he wondered how long he had been out?

His arm was throbbing and he should probably keep an eye on it so it didn't become infected but there was no way in hell he was taking those painkillers again. After dressing and having a quick meal he hurried up to the bridge, he was probably very late already.

But when Kraglin walked onto the bridge he was met with a scowling Yondu, "The hell you think yer doing here, boy?"

"Working...?" Kraglin replied a bit confused as he walked over to one of the consoles.

"No you ain't." Yondu said, standing up from the captain's seat, "I don't need a doped up, one armed first mate." Kraglin stiffened, and Yondu pointed to Horuz. "He is acting first mate until the doc decides you can use that arm ya decided going out catching knives with." 

“I ain't on no painkillers!” Kraglin argued, "and I can work just fine with one arm. I ain't useless!"

"Doc told ye ta go to the med bay when you woke up" Yondu stated, "and I know for a fact that you haven't done that."

"It's just a cut, captain" he said annoyed, confirming Yondu's suspicion. He had not been to the doctor. 

"I don't want too see you in here, until the doc tells me you can use that arm. Do I make myself clear?"

There was a tense silence, everyone had stopped working and were now watching the slightly odd situation unfold. Kraglin would usually always obey the captain but in this instance he seemed irritated and straight up angry, he wasn't moving from his spot and looked about ready to throw something.

“I ain't telling you again.” with a whistle the Yaka arrow flew across the room and stopped pressed into Kraglin`s right arm. The hraxian`s eyes widened, looking in disbelief at the arrow digging into his flesh, not enough to break the skin but enough to hurt.

"Get out or I'll give ya a hole to match!” Yondu looked furious and nobody on the bridge was truly sure if the captain was bluffing or not.

“Yes. Sir.” Kraglin eventually bit out, slapping the arrow away from his arm and leaving the bridge. Yondu whistled again, arrow returning to him.

The bridge crew just cautiously looked at their captain as he sat back down in the seat.

“Get back ta work” he growled and everyone hastily returned to their tasks, navigating the Eclector towards Terra.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The chapter title is from the song "Nothin` but a good time" by Poison which came out in 1988, which was the year Peter lost his mother.  
> All the chapters will be named after the top hits on the radio 1988-1989 that Peter has on his mix tapes.  
> English is not my first language and i am using this as a writing exercise so i would love some comments on how to improve.  
> I have seen a lot of awesome and creative fics on Guardians of the Galaxy here and I have borrowed an element or..five  
> For example, In this fic Kraglin is Hraxian and not Xandarian ( Hraxians were created by write_like_an_american)  
> The voldi people (like Kin and her sister Zaco) and viscardi are all extinct in the Marvel universe but this is a fanfic...  
> Trying to write dialect is hard y`all...  
> -Mindless


	2. Under The Milky Way

July 5, 1989  
St. Charles, Missouri

The river Missouri was glittering in the light of the setting sun, a family of ducks swam close to the river's edge, keeping a cautious distance from the young boy who was sitting up against a tree with his feet in the water. He had strawberry-blonde slightly shaggy hair and a headset on his head, absently moving his feet in the water as he watched the little ducklings.

It was in the middle of the summer vacation but this particular vacation hadn't really been very enjoyable to Peter. Why would it be?  
Summer was the time of year when his mother would use her vacation to spend time with him. They used to do all kinds of stuff together.

When she had her vacation from work she would always make plans, like taking him camping and teaching him about the survival things she learned when she was a girl scout. The summer he turned seven she had even taken him on a road trip to Florida, so that they could go to Disney World. On their way there they had listened to music on the radio, stopped at diners, roadside attractions and slept at motels. It had been the best summer ever. Unfortunately, that had also been the summer when she had started to feel so unwell.

It had been over six months since Meredith Quill had passed away and Peter had been moved to a orphanage.

Peter had wanted to stay with his grandpa but the social workers had said he was unfit because he was _forgetful_. Miss Julie, one of the caretakers at the orphanage, had explained to Peter that his grandpa had an illness called “dementia” and he sometimes did not remember things and that was why he couldn't take properly care of him. Peter did not quite understand what that meant until he visited grandpa Max a few days after his mother had passed away. He had been welcomed warmly and then his grandpa had asked when Meredith would come pick him up again. As if he hadn't been at the funeral himself, right next to Peter.

He had regularly visited grandpa Max over the last months but sometimes the elderly man would forget again and the last time he had become really angry at Peter because he thought that he had stolen the book he was reading. Kristina, the In-home companion, had looked for it and it turned out that it had been placed in the fridge by Max himself. Kristina had comforted Peter and assured him that his grandpa didn't truly think he was a bad person or a thief, that was just his illness talking. That had been around two weeks ago and Peter hadn't really wanted to go back, at least not for a while.

The orphanage didn't really have a lot of money to spend on summer activities for the children. Sometimes they would take them to the library to borrow books, free trips to museums or the once in a blue moon trip to the movies.  A few days ago, the older kids had gone to see the new movie “Ghostbusters II”, and luckily Peter had been allowed to come with them. It had actually been a pretty cool movie but it would probably be a while until the orphanage took them to the cinema again. 

This morning after breakfast, Peter had taken his backpack and decided to spend the day in Jean Baptiste Point DuSable Park, just a few blocks away.

He packed the essentials like his cassettes, some comics he had borrowed, a sandwich, a packet of grape kool-aid and his emergency batteries that he may or may not have taken from various electric things in the orphanage. Peter did not intend to go back until dark, he just felt like being alone today.

The caretakers had told them as long as they did not go too far and always told someone before they left, they were allowed to go where they wanted during the day. Their curfew was at six but the older kids were allowed to stay out for longer.

Peter turned the cassette in his walkman over to the other side, he still listened to “Awesome Mix 1 and 2”, those songs had been so special to his mother and he loved them very much. At the moment, however, he listened to The Beach Boys`s “Kokomo” on his own cassette tape, “Totally Bitchin` Mix 3”, lazily looking up into the foliage of the trees gently dancing in the breeze.

  
He had started recording his own cassettes after Aiden, a teenager at the orphanage, had discovered his love for the music his mother had given him.  
He had showed him how to record stuff from the radio and it turned out that it was actually very fun to listen, then try to time it so he would get the whole thing on tape or hope they would play that song again later.  
Aiden had even been so kind to give him a few of his own empty cassettes that Peter made into the “Totally Bitchin' Mix 1-3”, number four still in progress. On many of the songs on his first tape he had not been able to get the timing quite right. The annoying DJ was still heard in the beginning on a few songs saying “this is radio four with DJ JD playing "Never gonna give you up" by my man, Rick Astley” or something similarly stupid. Luckily as he made the other two he had gotten better at it.

The sun had slowly made its way down as Peter sat with his comics and music and the park had become more and more silent as the people in the park left for home. Peter removed his headset and listened to the sound of cicadas and the ducks in the water. He should probably head back, his wristwatch said that it was already 18:56, and way past the curfew.

Being in the park was pretty safe during the day but now when darkness fell he felt a little bit unsettled. He wasn't scared of the dark or anything, he wasn't a wuss. Nevertheless Peter quickly put his things in the backpack and started running towards the park exit. The caretakers could be worried that something had happened to him, even if this was _not_ the first time he returned after the curfew. He had given them quite a scare a few months back when he stayed out until nine.

As he ran through the trees he suddenly stopped dead in his tracks and covered his eyes as a powerful white light blinded him. Had a police helicopter pointed its searchlight on him or something? Peter tried looking up at it as he felt a strange pulling sensation in his stomach, and suddenly he couldn't breathe.

* * *

 

Peter sat up with a gasp, dazed and in a unfamiliar room. Where was he? Had he fallen asleep somewhere?

He was sitting on the floor of a barely lit room that he couldn't recognize. On shaking legs he stood up and supported himself on the walls, where was he? Peter swallowed thickly, he felt a little bit nauseous almost like the time he and his mother had gone on the Space Mountain ride. The room seemed to be made of metal and there wasn't really anything in it but himself. He tried to think back, not really remembering what had happened except the blinding light. He checked his watch again, it read 19:09. 

Peter looked up, he thought he could hear footsteps. Looking towards the direction it came from, a door slid open and a dull light illuminated the room.

"Hello?" Peter took a hesitant step towards the door but gasped as a yellow  _monster_ entered the room. It was big and muscular, had bright yellow skin, no hair and its eyes were completely milk white. Peter screamed and backed into the wall as the monster came closer, its face unnatural and with a wide grin. The monster moved closer, trying to grab him but Peter screamed "Get away from me!" and jumped away. He tried running past the creature but felt the monster grab him by his backpack and him lift him up with a low rumbling laugh. "Get off me!" Peter swung at the monster, hoping it would let go, the monster guffawed and threw him to the floor. Peter landed on his side and felt his eyes fill with tears and his breathing become more and more rapid. The monster leaned over him. Peter turned onto his back and kicked at the monster, hitting it in the face. The monster yelled out, stumbling back a few steps and with a growl went to grab him again.

Suddenly there was a high whistle, and a glowing arrow stopped in front of the monster. The monster looked scared suddenly, stepping back and away. Peter looked at the floating and glowing magic arrow, following it with his eyes as it flew towards the door. It was caught by a man in the doorway. The man's skin was completely blue. Was it body paint?  What was going on?

Who was this blue man and the monster? Were they going to hurt him? Peter sniffled and dragged himself backwards towards a corner, he put his backpack in front of him, holding it tightly against his chest. The blue man talked with a commanding and slightly raspy voice and the yellow skinned monster walked towards the doorway and left the room. Whoever he was, the blue man had stopped the one that wanted to hurt him. Peter tried to stop his quick breaths as he met the other's red eyes.

The blue man had an muscular build, a red  _thing_ sticking out of his head and creepy piercing red eyes. He was wearing a maroon leather coat with a fire symbol on the right and he just stood there, arms crossed and looking at Peter with a toothy grin. Peter just blinked at the at the man who was seemingly waiting for something. Until someone new entered the room.

The one that entered _looked_  like ahuman but Peter was not too sure he was. He was tall, lean and had short spiked hair that was colored red at the tips. He had a thin face and had blue, almost grey, eyes. He seemed to be wearing a maroon jumpsuit in the same style as the blue man, but had tied the upper part around his waist and wore a long-sleeve black shirt. The sleeve on his left arm was rolled up and a bandage was wrapped around his forearm. Perhaps he was human after all, Peter could not see anything that suggested he wasn't, but what was he doing with the monster and the blue man?

The two started to talk together, seemingly having a discussion in a language Peter had never heard before. He knew some words in spanish that he had learned from Daniel at the orphanage, mostly swearwords, and he kinda knew what french sounded like but was not what their language sounded like at all.

Oddly enough, it didn't sound like they were talking in the same language at all.

* * *

Yondu looked away from the child hiding in the corner of the room and grinned at the newly arrived Kraglin. He looked better than the last time he had seen him. Judging by the fresh bandage on his arm, he had actually listened and went to the doctor today too. Little miracles.

“How's the arm?” He asked, Kraglin flexed his fingers and rolled his shoulder before answering quietly, “Fine... Jull said you needed me”

He knew Kraglin was still upset about being banned from the bridge but he was getting sick of Kraglin moping around like getting told to take some days off was the height of indignity. He had been acting this way for days, avoiding him and even blocking his access to his room. It was frustrating. He shouldn't be punished for caring about the idjits welfare, damnit!

Well...If Kraglin wanted something to do, then by Anthos he would get it!

“Say, Krags...” Yondu said mischievously, “Ya want work?”

Kraglin immediately looked suspicious before he realised what Yondu was about to say. “No” Kraglin growled, “Hell no. You ain't dumping him on me!” 

“Why not." Yondu asked holding out his hands innocently "You are the only one who ain't working” Well, that Yondu could entrust a child with anyhow. The boy's father would probably appreciate it if his boy wasn't scared half to death when he arrived.

"Plenty of the others guys have kids. Let them handle him!"

“Them boys won't look terran enough for the brat." He nodded towards the child, who was now looking skeptically between them over his backpack.

"Yer doin` it." The tone of his voice told Kraglin that this was not a request. 

"Unless…” Yondu stepped closer to the hraxian with a self-satisfied smirk on his face, “you want to admit to me that ya still ain't feelin` well.”  

As he predicted the first mate made a slightly irked face but didn't say anything. Kraglin would _never_ admit to that. The hraxian had a obnoxious habit for trivializing injuries because admitting to being hurt was admitting to being _weak_ , at least in Kraglin`s mind. Yondu knew where this behaviour stemmed from but he would not stand for the man worsening his own wounds by trying to pretend they didn't exist. Watching a brat was, by far, the least hazardous work he could think of.

“Yes, Captain...being a wet nurse was, after all, what i've always wanted” Yondu just ignored the sarcastic reply.

“Attaboy, Obfonteri” as Yondu turned to leave he delivered a resounding smack to Kraglin`s behind and walked out. Laughing at the loud yelp the hraxian made. 

* * *

 

The door slid closed and Kraglin hissed “that fuckin` dick”, hoping that the child would not be able to see the faint blue that was blushing his cheeks.

In the corner, the boy lowered the backpack, now looking slightly more puzzled than frightened. The hraxian ran his hand through the mohawk, “the boy is not at fault” he mumbled to himself, “It's Yondu you want to shiv, not the kid.”

After a deep breath he turned to the young terran. The boy was still curled into himself and holding his backpack in front of himself like a shield, but it looked like the worst fright had worn off. Well, he wasn't crying at least. 

Kraglin was very uncertain on how to proceed with this boy. Children were not exactly his area of expertise, nevermind scared ones.

“Do you understand me?” he asked, hoping that Ego had outfitted the boy with a universal translator. It would be common sense to do so, if he had indeed intended to bring both the boy and his mother to outer space. Peter had not reacted to his question and just continued to stare at him. That's a no then.

He was still not sure how to go about this but decided to start with something easy. Kraglin walked close, but not too close, and sat down on his knees hoping the boy would feel less threatened when he wasn't looming over him.  

He pointed his hand to himself and clearly said his name “Kraglin”. The boy looked at him oddly but he repeated himself again, hoping the boy would understand.

“His name is Kraglin?” Peter whispered to himself, Kraglin nodded and hoped that meant the same as it did in many parts of the galaxy. The boy pointed to him and asked “You're Kraglin?” He nodded again, then pointed to the boy, hoping he would understand what he wanted. “I`m Peter...Quill” The boy said quietly, lifting his hand slightly but then lowering it again, hugging his backpack closer.

“Peter Quill?” Kraglin asked, this was definitively the boy Stakar had asked them to find, he didn't look like he knew about "aliens" so he had to assume that Ego looked terran too.

Peter sat up more up from the corner and leaned forward, “can you talk like...english?”

Kraglin made a negative motion with his hands, he could not. “Oh…” Peter slumped down a bit, he seemed a bit unsure as to what was happening but it didn't look like he thought Kraglin wanted to harm him at least.

“Can you help me?" the boy asked with a slightly pleading tone as he moved closer, "I don't want the monsters to eat me. Please help me” 

Eat him? Silly thing.

Kraglin smiled slightly and stood up, patting dust off his knees and then offering Peter a hand. The boy took it and was pulled to his feet. He waved to the boy to follow and Peter clutched his backpack to him, walking behind the tall man to the door. The door slid open and they stepped out, and started walking to the right. Kraglin led the boy out of Yondu's M-Ship and to the hangar. Peter stopped to look at his surroundings, taking in the big room full of spaceships but he squeaked as he realised Kraglin was not waiting for him. He ran after, footsteps echoing in the big room and grabbed the back of Kraglin`s jumpsuit.

Kraglin stopped at that and turned his head to look at the hand that held onto him, he pushed the boy's hand away and continued to walk. Peter felt a bit dejected, but continued to follow very closely behind, going into a small jog just to keep up with the tall man's steps.

They walked into a smaller hallway and past a window and as Peter glanced through it he stopped dead in his tracks, dropping his backpack and rushing towards the glass. On the other side of the glass was the earth, slowly disappearing in an ink like darkness.  

Kraglin saw a variety of emotions on the boys face as he turned to him, eyes wide. " _Aliens! You're Aliens!_ "

* * *

They had met a few other aliens on their way up to, wherever Kraglin was taking him. Every time, Peter had hidden behind him, practically glued to his back, until the other aliens disappeared from sight. A human looking man with tattoos on his face had yelled something in a teasing tone after them and Kraglin had replied with a single word that Peter was pretty sure was some form of curse word. Luckily, the yellow skinned alien was nowhere to be seen. 

Kraglin had finally stopped by a door and put in a code on a panel. The door made a little melodious beep and opened. Peter looked up at him a bit unsure but did not protest when a hand was placed on his back to give a slight push, signaling him that he wanted him to enter.

The room was not very big. It had a desk, a chair placed next to a window, a bed and a shelf with various things on them. Peter walked over to the desk and almost immediately went to touch a green knife that was laying on top of it. Kraglin swatted his hands away, picking it up and putting it away in his boot.

The man started mumbling in his language and opened the drawer on the desk, removing two more knives. He guided Peter to the chair next to a circular window, and made a hand movement that he translated to "sit down." The man then went back to searching the room, apparently for more knives. How many knives did he need? He checked every drawer, on shelfs and even inside a book.

Peter couldn't believe it, he was on a spaceship, with actual  _aliens_. Outside of the window was the cold vacuum of space, he could see the earth in the distance becoming smaller and smaller. Soon he wouldn't be able to see it.

Kraglin seemed to be done with searching the room and lastly lifted up the pillow in the bed just to make sure before he nodded to himself. He snapped his fingers so Peter would pay attention and gestured to the room, the bed and then pointed to him.

“You want me...to sleep here?” Peter asked and the other nodded in the affirmative before he turned to leave. 

“Hey!" Peter did not want him to leave, what if someone came to hurt him! This was the man`s room, wasn't it? Couldn't he stay here too? "..am I safe here?”

The tall man knocked on the door, it gave a deep metallic clang, and he assumed it mean that the door was secure. He hoped it was what it meant at least.

“Why did those guys kidnap me?" Peter asked warily, "Are they going to experiment on me? Cook me?”

He was just answered by an odd look, “...start a creepy alien zoo?”

The man just let out a snort with a barely contained smile on his face, apparently that was funny, somehow. The man waved at him and walked out of the room. The door slid shut and locked with a clank.

Peter looked around and decided to get his backpack, emptying it`s contents on the bed. He picked up his walkman and put it on the desk, then his five cassettes and the small bag of batteries. He was not sure if aliens used batteries or not, but for now he had enough for a couple of days, at least.

He looked at the "Headmasters" Transformers comics, the MAD magazine and "The Amazing Spider-man" Issue 300 that Peter had borrowed from Aiden, and that he _probably_ would never get to return. It may be best put them somewhere safe just in case. His backpack had a decent amount of color pencils, some pens and a mostly unused notebook. A swiss army knife, his rubik's cube and his orange haired troll doll, Lucky. He put them all on the desk. He picked up the half eaten PB &J sandwich that he hadn't finished in the park and took a big bite. It was slightly soggy by now, and he wished he hadn't already drunk his kool-aid.

The aliens wouldn't let him _starve,_ right? At the very least he hoped that aliens ate breakfast.

He wasn't sure why he had been taken, but the blue man, who seemed to be in charge, had not been happy when the yellow alien was hurting him. Kraglin had not hurt him either, and he seemed to take orders from the him. He didn't think they actually had anything sinister planned for him, but what _did_ they want? They had given him a room...unless this was some sort of prison cell.

Peter did not want to think about this now, he put on his headphones and turned on the walkman, taking another bite of his sandwich he walked back to the window, sitting down to look out of the porthole at the infinity of stars shining in the darkness. 

* * *

 

Half asleep Kraglin heard the telltale tone indicating that someone tried to unlock the door and then the beep that meant access had been denied.

Kraglin snickered, after he placed the boy in his room, he had decided to go sleep in Yondu's room, instead of sleeping in the rec room or in his M-ship.

He had changed the code to unlock the door, which was his own little pissy way of getting back at Yondu. If the centaurian wanted to enter, he would have to hack the lock himself or get help. Served him right. The centaurians jerkass behaviour was unjustified when it was over something so little like a stupid flesh wound. 

Kraglin woke up again later as the lights in the ceiling turned on and he let out a groan at the brightness before turning to lie on his side against the wall and shielding his eyes with his blanket. “Real fuckin` cute.” Yondu sounded irritated, a soft thud was heard as the captain threw his coat onto a chair “How old are you again?”  Kraglin didn't answer him but yawned and pulled the blanket closer around himself.

"Why are all your knives on my table..."The centaurian complained, letting out a great yawn, "and where's the boy at?”

There was various rustling of clothes and objects being put away. “M’ room..”Kraglin mumbled, voice slurred by sleep and the pain medication that he took before going to bed. Whatever Doc Teia had given him was too strong, and gave him a floaty feeling in his head. It was supposed to relieve pain, not render him almost unconscious.

The lights turned off again and Kraglin felt the bed shift, he let out a low croon and leaned into the warmth of the body that pulled him closer. Yondu`s left arm traced the bandaged area on the hraxian`s forearm, “How is it...Really?”

“‘s ait” Kraglin murmured “and i'm still mad atchu...dick” Yondu chuckled and kissed Kraglins neck, interlacing their fingers. “You ain't got the sense you was born with. Someone has ta take care of you" Kraglin turned his head to the other man with a sleepy grin, “Aww...ya care ‘bout me."

Yondu squeezed the other's hand and placed a small kiss on the others lips, "Go the fuck ta sleep" 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yondu is the big spoon..always.  
> "Under the milky way" was made by The Church  
> I took some liberties with Peter's family, his grandfather is his only living relative...well..except for Ego  
> And yes, I know that Spider-man is in the same universe as Guardians but...I really like Spider-man...kay?  
> -Mindless


	3. Don't Worry, Be Happy

When Kraglin unlocked the door to his room, the boy was still asleep.

Peter was lying on the bed, still in his clothes with some sort of headband on his head. He opened his eyes slowly at the stream of light that came from the corridor, blinking a few times at the figure in the doorway before he sat up and rubbed his eyes.

The hraxian entered and looked around. It did not seem as if the kid had messed up his room too much. Except for some crumbs on the floor, the boy must have had something to eat with him. It could certainly have been worse. 

Yondu had told him that the boy would stay here until they dropped him off with his dad. Kraglin did not mind too much and Peter must have felt comfortable enough in here too, he had unpacked his backpack and put his things on the desk.

Peter took off his headphones and hung them around his neck as he made a thoughtful face, “It wasn't a dream, huh?”

The child seemed oddly calm and relaxed for someone who had recently been snatched from his planet. It was a bit _regrettable_ that they needed to do it like that, but a primitive place like Terra might enter mass hysteria if a spaceship was spotted. 

Kraglin shook his head and picked up one of the things on the desk, a kinda ugly toy with orange hair and a brown coat. “It's a lucky troll” the boy revealed as he leaned over the edge of the bed to look for his shoes, “His name is just Lucky...Mom gave him to me”

So it was some sort of good luck charm? What a tacky little thing. Yet, he knew Yondu would probably love it. The man had a strange little collection of odd and sometimes cute knick-knacks. He supposed it was not so different from his own collection of knives, the only difference being that knives were actually _useful_.

Having located and put on his shoes, the boy combed a hand through his bedhead hair and looked at him curiously, “You do understand english, right.” Well...the translator did, for some reason, so Kraglin just smiled affirmatively. “Because i really need to use the bathroom!” the boy suddenly blurted out, standing up and fidgeting with his shirt. Oh…

He waved at Peter to follow and lead him out and down the corridor. The nearest bathroom was opened and Kraglin tapped the sign over it. Perhaps hoping that the child would remember what it looked like, in case of future bathroom emergencies. The terran peeked inside and seemed to be very happy to find that it looked similar to ones on his planet and not a “super sci-fi toilet”, whatever he imagined that would be.

While waiting for the boy to finish his business, Kraglin debated just bringing him some food to the room and just letting him stay there, but that would also mean _he_ had to stay there. No, that would be boring. The boy couldn't stay in the room forever. The mess hall was probably not very crowded right now, at least he hoped it wouldn't be. The boy had been very unnerved by the few people they had met yesterday on their way up to the room.

When the boy exited the bathroom, Kraglin just started walking further down the corridor instead of back the way they came, Peter looked towards the room but followed shortly after. “Hey! Where are we going?”

Kraglin turned, bent down and poked Peter in the stomach, much to the boys surprise. “Hey!” the boy rubbed the spot “...Do you mean we are getting something to eat?” he asked, a little bit of hope in his voice. Kraglin nodded with a hum and Peter beamed at the promise of food. "Cool"

When they entered the hangar Peter stopped as they crossed the bridge, he gripped the rails and leaned slightly over the edge. He noticed that they were in the same room they had first entered when Kraglin had taken him from the spaceship, but this time they were many floors up.

“Peter” Kraglin said impatiently, hoping the boy would take a hint and hurry up. “It's so far to the ground” the boy mumbled, looking at the few of the crew that was walking on the bridges further down. A few of the men noticed the boy but did not spare him more than a glance before they carried on. Peter looked at Kraglin with quizzical eyes, “Has anyone ever fallen down from here?”

“Yes.” Kraglin sighed before he remembered how pointless it was to talk to him.

“ _Yes”_ Peter mimicked, it was slightly odd to hear the terran speak in his language “that sounds like someone has...and it probably hurt _a lot_.”

Kraglin did not feel like waiting anymore and walked over, taking the boy's arm and continued to lead him over the bridge.  

“Did they die?”

 “ _Yes._ ”

* * *

 

The mess hall was luckily almost empty, as most of the crew had already eaten and only a few remained at the tables. Kraglin walked up to the counter and addressed the woman behind it, “What crime against the gods will you be serving this morning, Kin?”

The voldi woman turned and waved a knife at him teasingly, "You can choose between two things today...we have take it or _starve._ ”

"Just the usual then." She put away the knife in favour of a cup and took a sip of the hot brew, she then spotted Peter hiding behind Kraglin and craned her neck to get a better look “that the kid?”

Kraglin stepped to the side, revealing the boy and the woman leaned over the counter to have a look. “Oooo! What a cutie!” She cooed and Peter flinched back as the girl reached out to touch his hair, “Oh...No worries little man, I do not intend to harm you.”

Peter stepped closer and studied the face of the voldi, eyes lingering on the bright yellow feathers that framed her face and her big amber eyes.

“You hungry?” she asked with a smile, “what would you like?”

“He can't understand ya.” Kraglin told her, Kin pursed her lips in thought. “What does his kind eat?” she then asked, looking at the first mate as she tapped her chin, “Do _you_ know?”

Truth be told, Kraglin was not sure what would be best to give the boy. Hraxians were mesocarnivores so while many of his kind liked to eat both fruit and vegetables, they mainly ate meat. The information he had read on terrans mentioned that they were omnivores so he supposed they would be fine with most things? He told Kin to just give Peter a few different things but nothing too spicy. "Do you think he eats raw meat?” 

“This ok?” the woman asked and held up a strip of bloody dark red meat, dangling it questioningly in front of the boy, but Peter just eyed the strip of meat with disgust.

“By the look on his face imma say that's a hard no.” Kraglin mumbled and took the strip of meat from Kin and ate it, “his loss.”

Peter now looked at him with the same face, had he never seen anyone eat raw meat before? Weird.

“Guess so” Kin shrugged and fetched a plate, picking out some sliced fruit, vegetables and small pieces of cooked meats. She held the plate out for Peter to take with a smile, “There you go, cutie.” The boy accepted with with a mumbled thanks and examined the plate.

Kraglin picked up a meat filled bun for himself, two cups of water and then lead the boy to a table in the corner. Kin turned and got back to work, cutting up some more fruit in the back of the kitchen.

“She had feathers for hair” the boy stated as he sat down, leaning a bit to see her better. Kraglin hummed in agreement and took a bite of his bun, the boy soon turned his attention to the food and examined it curiously. Peter picked at his food for a bit and to his credit, he did try a bite of everything. Ending up with eating most of it but putting some of it to the side when he found that he didn't like it.

Kraglin had no idea what he was supposed to do with the boy, most places he would just be in the way for the crew and he couldn't leave him anywhere, because the boy did not understand what anyone was saying. This was going to be a problem.

Kraglin finished his food and took out his communication unit. “Captain.” He spoke into it and then waited for an answer. It was silent for a few seconds before he was answered, not by Yondu but by Horuz, “He ain't here.”

“Okay...is Doc up yet?” he could hear the telltale sounds of fingers on a keyboard as Horuz checked the active crewmembers.

“He comes on shift in a few hours but the assistant is on now. Why?”

“I was thinking that the kid needs a translator.” Peter was now looking around at the other crewmembers in the room, clearly very fascinated but not nearly enough to approach them and say hi. "Could you set up an appointment for him?" 

The elderly man grumbled on the other side of the line, but Kraglin could hear him tapping away, doing what he had asked him to do. 

"He ain't free until later this evening but i have registered your request. He will probably contact you when he's ready"

"And just what am i supposed to do with the kid until then?" he sighed, "what do _you_ think he wants to do?" He was hoping that Horuz, who had both kids and grandkids, could help him out because he had no idea.

"Just keep him occupied with something. Kids like to play. Take the kid to the rec room or the gym. The gym door is a bit busted though.”

“and why hasn't this been fixed?” Kraglin asked a bit puzzled, he had not heard anything about that.

“It sort of works, and if it still _technically_ works it's not getting replaced” Horuz replied matter of factly.

“Ah...and that also explains why your old ass is still on the payroll” Kraglin deadpanned.

Horuz let out a bark of laughter and ended the call.

* * *

 

The two arrived at the recreation room and Kraglin mumbled a hello to Tullk who seemed to be reading the news on his tablet. Usually the space was used for card games and other shenanigans, usually drunk ones, but at this time of day it was empty.

“Doing good?” the xandarian asked, looking at the boy who had hid behind the first mate the second he realised the room was not empty.

“Aren't ye supposed to be on the bridge?” was the reply he got from the hraxian, who crossed his arms and looked at him, waiting for an explanation.

"Shit...Yer on vacation, Krags. Horuz doesn't pay attention nearly as much as you, so i'm taking five" Tullk winked at him unapologetically, "Ya doing good or nae"

"I'm fine" he walked over to the table and sat down. Tullk seemed to have healed well after the little scuffle in Pife, only a small pale yellow bruise on his nose remained. 

Peter kept standing by the door and staring at Tullk. "What`s up with him?" the xandarian asked, "come `ere" he waved at the boy who hesitated. 

When Kraglin also called him over, he eventually came, still keeping closer to Kraglin rather than the other man. "Why do you have tattoos there" he asked quietly, pointing to Tullk`s face. "Well.." the other man began but was interrupted by the first mate who told him that Peter would not understand anything he said. Peter then started walking around in the room, first picking up a deck of cards and looking at them. Something that resembled a pinball machine caught his eyes and he went in that direction, leaving the cards. "How does this work?" he turned to the two men and pointed to the machine, hoping that one of them could help.

Tullk got up from his chair and showed Peter how to start it and where to aim, when he felt confident the boy had understood he walked back and sat down. "So, back to us...How has your _vacation_ been?"

“It's not a vacation, I don’t need to relax and if Yondu wanted me to relax why did he drop this incredibly clingy terran on me." Peter let out a "Woo" as he finally hit a target in the game. 

Tullk just shrugged a bit amused, "He has his reasons, i'm sure". The two sat in silence for a while, just looking at the boy trying to hit the targets.

Tullk seemed bothered by something. There was a melancholy look in his face and he seemed lost in his own thoughts. “Hey man, wanna talk about whatever is up with yer face” Kraglin offered, Tullk sighed and leaned forward on the table, resting his hands on his arms and mumbling “Just...miss my family. Seeing that kid here made me think of my kids”

The xandarian was married to a woman on Knowhere and together they had two boys and a third child on the way.

“She is having the baby soon, right?” Kraglin asked, should be close now if he remembered correctly.

Tullk looked up, “Within the next six weeks...Friait says she kicks like a fighter already.”

“She?” Kraglin asked amused, “Though you guys didn't want to know the sex” Tullk had said something about the sex being a surprise but Kraglin personally thought that the two were betting units on it. 

“She says that she _knows_ it's a lass this time..not going to argue with her on that.” The man nodded to himself and smiled a rather beautiful smile, "Yea...A wee lass would be nice."  

“You know that you can always take some time off..." the hraxian said with a grin, "Take off when we dock at the mechanic at Irma. You will be welcomed back whenever you feel like it. I'm sure your wife would appreciate the help."

He seemed to consider it, he would certainly be able to afford missing a few weeks. "I might just do that."  

Tullk`s comm unit suddenly yelled "Where the hell are you, asshole!" Apparently there _was_ a limit to Horuz`s obliviousness.

The xandarian grinned and mouthed a "Whoops". He picked up his tablet and left the room in a hurry.

* * *

 

When Peter got bored of shooting the targets he stepped away from the game machine. It wasn't very different from the Duck hunt game that he had played at the arcade, only this time he had no idea what he was shooting at. They looked kinda like freaky cats. 

He looked at the table the two men had sat at and realised they were gone. For a split second he thought he had been left alone but then saw that Kraglin had moved over to the big window and sat down on one of the pillows near the glass. He looked a bit sleepy or bored, maybe both.

"Have you seen the whole galaxy?" Peter asked as he walked over and sat down on the pillow next to him. The man replied with a single word and shook his head, so that was what a no sounded like. Peter mimicked the word Kraglin had said and then the first one he had learned. He had learned both yes and no in an alien language today, the man just smiled wryly at him.

Peter and Kraglin sat together in front of the big window for a while, just looking out at the stars. 

The man yawned and as he did, Peter's eyes were drawn to his teeth. Holy heck. The man's teeth looked _sharp._ Like “all the better to eat you with, my dear” sharp. Why hadn't he noticed that before? He had thought that Kraglin may actually be a human but now he knew for sure that he wasn't.

“Wow...can I see your teeth” he asked, adding a "please" when the man didn’t do anything.

Kraglin narrowed his eyes, then reluctantly opened his mouth. Peter had been right, the teeth were not human. While they looked human enough in the front, the canine teeth looked just a little bit long and every tooth after that, was pointed and not flat like his own. "Cool!" Peter's hand unconsciously went up to the others cheek, leaning closer to get a better look but squeaked as Kraglin snapped his jaws closed in front of his face.  Patience with the boy having run thin.

"Sorry?" he mumbled, "I just haven't seen teeth like that before."

The man did not actually seem mad, but he shuffled back so he sat up against the wall and continued to look out the window.

He wondered what Kraglin _was_ , was he and the man with the face tattoo the same? He had not looked like he had sharp teeth, but then again, neither did Kraglin.  As he stared out of the window into the vast stars he started thinking about what his mother had said about his father, an angel of white light.

Was it possible that the angel had in fact been an _alien_. Grandpa Max had said that there were no angel, just some deadbeat who had ran away when his mother had become pregnant. While he liked Kraglin and thought he was nice, he knew it could not be him, as he did not shine. The blue man, did not shine neither, except for the red thing he had on his head which shone ocattionally. When he thought about it he had not seen anyone today who shone white.

He looked to the man wanting to ask about his father but saw that he had fallen asleep, Peter moved closer so that he sat next to the man and put his headphones on.

He could always ask him about it later.

* * *

 

Kraglin woke up slowly, hearing muted music. There was someone leaning on him and as he looked down at ginger hair he realised it was Peter, fast asleep. The boy's breathing was slow and calm, and in synch with his own. He had fallen asleep again? Kraglin was excused for napping, he was on Doc`s stupid pills, but the boy had only been awake for a few hours. Peter must feel very safe to fall asleep here.

The poor child had very little idea what was going on but somehow felt that he could put his trust in one of the men who had, and let's be fair here, kidnapped him. “I have no idea why you are so calm, puppy” He whispered, softly stroking a few ginger strands out of the child's forehead, “Yer pretty darn brave..I wouldn't have been if i were ya...”

“Dang, Obfonteri. Parenthood suits you quite nicely.”

“Ah hell” Kraglin mumbled as Yondu walked through the door, a big shit eating grin on his face. 

"Don't y`all look cute" the centaurian sat down on his haunches in front of them, "You like him, huh?"

"I'm watching him like ya told me to do" he replied sourly, "that's it."

"Aha..." Yondu smirked, "and you childproofed your room because you were worried he would hurt himself.”

“I was worried" the hraxian stated bluntly, "that he would damage my knives.” Kids touch everything and are curious to a fault. Leaving them in the room would just have been reckless.

“That right? Well, with what I saw just now, it ain't a big stretch imagining you in a cozy home with a few pups running around” Yondu grinned toothily.

“Not all hraxians call their children _pups_ " Kraglin mumbled, "that's a stereotype.” 

"It sure is." Yondu stood up, "Doc said to bring the boy, he has time to fix him a translator now."

* * *

He had been woken up from his nap by Kraglin and the blue man. Together they had walked for a while, and ended up in a room that looked suspiciously like the nurse's office at Peters school.

There was a few anatomical drawings on the walls, a box of metal limbs in an open cabinet, bottles upon bottles with liquids in all the colors of the rainbow and equipment he couldn't even begin to guess the uses for. 

"Why are we here?" Peter asked worried.

Kraglin sat down on one knee and gestured Peter closer, in his hand he held up a small metal device.

Peter took it and examined it, despite having no idea what it could actually be.

He looked up at at the man and asked. It was kind of irritating to know that the people on the spaceship could understand him, but he himself had to walk around guessing what they were saying.

Kraglin turned his head and pointed to a spot behind his ear. When Peter looked closer he could see that the man had something metallic under the skin. Was it the same thing he was holding now?

Though not a word was spoken, the other's intention was suddenly quite clear. 

The boy's hand flew up to cover the same spot on his own neck, “NO!” he shouted and quickly turned to run away, but his upper arm was caught in a steel hard grip. Peter thrashed and screamed, hitting at a hand that was not even budging an inch in response. "I don't want it! I don't!"

"Peter!" the man said in an exasperated voice, clearly annoyed.

“Let me go! Let me go!” Peter started blubbering as he realised that Kraglin was not letting go at all.

The blue man sounded irritated and Kraglin snapped back at him. 

Peter then kicked, his knee slamming into the arm he knew the man had a bandage on. Kraglin gasped surprised at the pain, letting go of Peter's arm to hold over the area that had been struck. Peter fell on his side as the counterweight was removed, he scrambled to get up but got a was pushed to the floor when a boot was placed his back. The blue man put more pressure on the nine year olds back, making the him gasp slightly. Kraglin was talking hurriedly to the blue man, seemingly trying to get him _off_ Peter.

Peter sniffed sadly at the whole situation. He had not actually wanted to hurt Kraglin, he had no idea why he decided to kick him. Kraglin had the metal thing too and when he thought about it, maybe it was important. It was probably completely harmless but what was probably _not_ harmless was the very angry blue alien scowling furiously down at him. Yondu removed the boot, grabbing the back of his shirt and yanking him to his feet. 

“I..I didn't mean it” Peter said remorsefully, not meeting their eyes but rather staring at his shoes. "I'm sorry, but i don't want it!"

A door opened and a stocky man in black clothes, pink skin and huge eyes came out. He was holding a syringe filled with black liquid. He talked in a low rumble and gestured for them to enter the room he had just exited. Peter stepped back and was suddenly lifted up and into a strong grip, hands pinned to his sides. The blue man said something, and the man that Peter assumed was a doctor, shrugged and walked over to them.

"Hey! Let go!" he squirmed as the syringe came closer but was unable to get out of the blue man's grip.

"Help me!" he yelled at Kraglin, who in response with a barely contained smile on his face, mimed that he couldn't because his arm hurt. Fair enough.

The doctor pulled up the sleeve on his shirt and jabbed him in the shoulder with the syringe, all the black liquid disappearing into him.

It didn't hurt much, but almost immediately Peter started to feel dizzy.

He blinked several times as his vision became unfocused and his body felt heavier by the second. His limbs felt as unresponsive as if made of noodles and he struggled to keep his head up. The whole room bled into in a blur of colors and his head tipped backwards.

* * *

 

The night cycle was Yondu's favorite time to spend on the bridge. It was usually quiet and if he and the first mate was alone, there was a good chance of talking Kraglin into some good ol` fashioned fun in the captain's chair. 

They had taken over for Horuz early so that they had some time to themselves as the translator would take around that time before it was done. The next shift would be Oblo in about an hour.

This time however, Yondu did not get the chance to start anything as an incoming call from Stakar interrupted them. Yondu made a face as Kraglin slid off his lap and out of the view of the call screen before he accepted.

“Stakar“ he gave the man the ravager salute and waited for him to speak.

“How is the boy doing?" the archurian asked in lieu of a greeting, "and how is Kraglin coping with being a babysitter?”

“Well…the boy is currently getting a translator and Kraglin is” Yondu started but was cut off by the hraxian saying _“ecstatic”_ sarcastically as he came to stand beside his captain.

Yondu smiled “He is a bit grumpy, one of `em new recruits has apparently been talking shit about him because of the kid.”

“Ah...and what is he going to do about it?” Stakar inquired curiously looking at Kraglin expectantly.

“Nothing. I told him to leave it until it happened in front of him.” Yondu answered for him, Kraglin scowled but didn't say anything and continued to stand beside Yondu.

Stakar was silent for a while before he leaned back into his chair with a frown on his face, “It would appear that I have made a _mistake._ ” Yondu straightened up at that, suddenly very interested. It was not very often that Stakar Ogord admitted to having done _anything_ wrong.

“Is that right?” Yondu's obvious enjoyment made Stakar annoyed and he growled, “wipe that grin off your face, Udonta.”

Yondu held his hands up, "Sorry, but I think this is the first time I have heard you admit  _you_ made a mistake. _Please continue._ "

“I was contacted by four other ravager factions" Stakar began, "They too had received a job offer from Ego. _Not_ for the orphaned boy, Peter Quill of Terra but other children from other planets.” Yondu and Kraglin shared a look but waited for their leader to continue. “I decided to investigate and found that he had not only hired ravagers, but other mercenaries to find even more children."

“What the hell?!” Yondu mumbled. 

"So far I found _fifteen_ cases, all for different children whom he claims are all his own.” Stakar pinched the bridge of his nose, "I do not know about the other children, but when i talked to him about Peter Quill, there was really no doubt in my mind that he was being truthful when he said the terran was his son.” 

"So what yer saying is this jackass is screwing his way through the galaxy?" Yondu asked.

Stakar then became quiet, clearly having more to say but was hesitating.

“Sir” Kraglin spoke quietly,  “What did you find?”

Stakar sighed, “All those children, had a mother that was either dying or already dead."  

"It's suspicious to say the least” The archurian rubbed his temples, “I should never had broken my own rule but when i talked to him...I don't know, I just felt for him.”

"So what yer telling me that this guy got one over on _you_ with a sob story?" Yondu asked with a serious expression on his face, "That's ain`t even funny. Are you kidding me?" 

“This man, Ego, has been quite hard to contact so he does not yet know that you have Peter. I suggest we don’t tell him until we have figured out what is going on.” Stakar looked tired, obviously having lost some sleep investigating Ego.  

“And just what the hell are we supposed to do with the boy until then?" Yondu asked, there was a reason Ravagers ships usually did not allow underage people into their ranks. There were exceptions of course, but the boy wasn't even a teenager. "Kraglin is very tired of watching the clingy brat and he thinks everyone else on this ship wants to eat ‘im”

“Well, how about you letting your mate actually rest and _share_ watching him.” Stakar suggested this as if it was the most obvious thing in the world.

Kraglin let out a “Hah!” like he did not think that was likely to happen at all, but looked away when Yondu shot him a glare.

“Seriously. Do you know what Aleta would have done with me if i didn't help her with the triplets?” Stakar stated, not actually having to tell either of them what the woman would have done. Aleta was out in left field, scary as fuck and would have murdered him. Which was probably what Stakar liked so much about her.

Their triplets had been a handful when they were younger and had debatably become even worse as they aged. Aleta and Stakar had a deal where they switched who had them on board every time they happened to pass close. Sita Ogord, the middle triplet, had had a weird thing for Kraglin when they were both teenagers, and she still kinda did.

She had followed him around and had even pinched the hraxians butt a few times. Kraglin had, after telling her to stop many times, eventually had enough and punched her. As it turned out, he had absolutely no hang ups with punching the girl, Stakar`s daughter or not.

Stakar himself had just shrugged and said that if Sita were stupid enough to pester Kraglin when he had told her multiple times to stop, she deserved it. Aleta had been less forgiving at first but Stakars first mate Ivo had told her off and said that if the roles had been reversed she would not have been mad at Sita.

“I will meet you at Irma, we need to talk face to face.” Stakar was about to end the call, when he stopped and said, “I would suggest you do not tell the boy about his father”

“Don't worry...I have an idea of what `m gonna to tell him.” Yondu grinned, the simple truth was that the boy was not going to be happy no matter what Yondu told him. It would be better for the boy to face the reality that he was going to stay with them for a while and as soon as possible. He would most likely _not_ like it.

He saluted Stakar and ended the call.

“So what?" Kraglin asked, leaning on the back of the chair, "are we _actually_ gonna keep a child on a Ravager ship?”

“For now.” Yondu responded, “and he _is_ small...probably good fer thievin`, don't ya think?”

Kraglin shook his head with a smile, “Good luck with that.”

“Now come here”, Yondu patted his lap with a crooked smile, “I'mma do stuff to you.”

Suddenly the internal communication unit blinked obnoxiously again. Yondu hissed “sonofabitch” at the second interruption that night when the doctors voice said “Come get the little guttersnipe. He's going to wake up soon.”

* * *

Peter`s head felt heavy and he blinked a few times. He moved his head, and felt something sting next to his ear and when he touched the spot it hurt a little. It looked like the aliens had put the metal thing in like they had wanted. He sniffed a little, he didn't want it. He hadn't wanted it.

Peter had woken up in the room Kraglin had given him.

He looked to the right and noticed Kraglin was sitting reclined in the chair next to the window. His eyes were closed and head slightly hanging, seemingly asleep. Peter had a metal thing like him now...even if he had no idea what that meant.

“You up, boy?”

Peter gasped and sat up, looking towards the door where the voice had come from. Leaning against the wall was the blue man, and he had talked _english_.

“You...You can talk?” Peter said slightly accusingly, wary of the man that had held him as the doctor gave him the shot. “I ain't talkin` in _your_ language” The man stated, “That thing you so aggressively didn't want, is a universal translator. You can understand us now.”

Peter looked at with with scepticism and then climbing out of bed to poke Kraglin in the arm, “mmm...what is it?” Kraglin mumbled and opened his eyes. Peter was absolutely  _amazed,_ “It worked on you too!”

“Of course it did” Kraglin mumbled, eyeing the boy amused “that's what it does.”

“You said your name was Kraglin, right” Peter asked, "Are you okay?...I didn't mean to kick. Not really." 

“Oh..It's fine. I'm Kraglin” he said as he stood up, “The cheerful guy over there is Yondu Udonta, my captain.”

Peter looked over at Yondu, "A captain? Is this like...a military ship?”

"Not really" Kraglin replied lightly, "do we look military to you?" They did not. Not that Peter knew anything about what space military might look like.

“Why did you guys take me?” Peter finally asked the question that had been burning in his head, “Do you know my dad?”

“We don't know your dad” Yondu said harshly, “You are here completely by accident.”

"What?" the disbelief in the boy's voice was very clear, "You guys picked me up... _how_ is that an accident?"

“Actually, _I_ did not pick you up at all.” Yondu grinned, “some guys in the crew saw you alone in that park and...decided they wanted to eat you.”

Peter's eyes was wide with fright as he looked between the two men, “They wanted to eat me!? WHAT!?”

He had assumed he had been completely wrong because all of the aliens he had met here had turned out to be pretty nice. Aliens that ate people was just things in horror stories weren't they?. The boy then turned to Kraglin, “Not you though, right? You wouldn't eat me!”

Kraglin did not reply right away, seemingly thinking about what to say to the increasingly distressed child. “I don't eat things that can talk” he finally answered.

“Kraglin. Leave.” Yondu commanded, "I need to talk to the boy."

“Yes sir” the man immediately walked towards the door but was stopped by Peter who grabbed a hold on his arm. “Don`t go. Please.”

“Sorry Peter.” Kraglin made the boy let go of his arm, “Captain's orders.” 

The door was closed and Peter was alone with Yondu.

"Like i said, some boys picked you up because they ain't never tasted terran before...they was going to eat chu” the captain said casually, as if he wasn't talking about something horrifying.

Peter gulped.

“but I stopped ‘em, boy.” Yondu looked scary like this, his eyes were hard as he stepped closer, “but if you pull more of that shit where you disobeyed and then kicked Kraglin where he's hurt. I might allow the men to try after all...because as far as i'm concerned, ya ain't nothing but a accidental _stowaway._ ”

Suddenly Peter felt angry, this wasn't his fault at all. They kidnapped him! That was _not_  his fault! “Take me back to earth then!” he yelled at the man, "Let me go home!"

Yondu scoffed, “I ain't using fuel ta take you anywhere, boy. Yer stuck, so get comfertable.”

“That's not fair!" Peter whined, very close to tears now, "If you don't take me back...I'm gonna...I'm gonna” he had no idea how to finish that sentence. What was he going to do? He had hoped that these people knew his father but he was just here by accident. He was here because someone on the ship wanted to eat him. What if they still wanted to?

“Yer gonna what?" Yondu asked and pushed him in the chest, making him stumble slightly backwards," _You_ are four foot _nothing_ , what exactly are going to do, boy?” Peter became silent but continued to scowl, trying so very hard to not cry in front of this blue bastard.

“That's what I thought.” Yondu smiled cruelly, seemingly satisfied that the boy was finally quiet.

Peter sat down on the bed, biting his lip and eyes brimming with unshed tears.

“I wanna go home” he whimpered, “It's not fair!”

“Yeah? Get over it!” Yondu left the room and the door slid shut and locked with a loud clank. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The chapter title is Don't Worry, Be Happy by Bobby Mcferrin  
> Which turned out to be quite ironic because by the end of this chapter...nobody's happy...and it didn't start off like that in the draft.  
> This chapter took a while because i had no time to write because of work, other life things and because i have used a lot of my spare time picking berries and mushrooms (yes...actually. I'm filling up my freezer and making jam, jelly and stuff).  
> The next chapter might have a “How they met” thing but i'm not quite done.  
> It will not take as long as this chapter though, promise.  
> By the by, If anyone hasn't seen IT already, go see it now. It's was great! (The kid that plays young Peter Quill is in it too. Demonic clowns and space pirates, he has had the oddest stranger danger...)  
> -Mindless


	4. Toy Soldiers

 

After he had told Peter that he had to stay with them for the foreseeable future the boy had, understandably, been very upset. But Yondu was a bit surprised when Kraglin brought Peter to the bridge the next morning, and the boy had the audacity to scowl at him.

“Cough it up, Horuz” Kraglin held out his hand towards the xandarian, and the elderly man gave him the thin work tablet that belonged to the first mate with sigh. Doc had finally given the hraxian the all clear to work as long as he didn't do anything that could reopen the wound.

Yondu was secretly grateful that it was healing so well, maybe now the man would stop his passive aggressive bitching.

Kraglin mumbled to himself as the tapped away on the tablet, “The hell...did you mess with my settings?” The elder man just smirked and began to inform the first mate what he had been working on.

"Kraglin?" Peter poked the hraxian in the side, "what is.."

"Not now" Kraglin patted away the boys hand.

Peter shrugged and started looking around the bridge. His eyes first went over to the star map. He moved closer and studied the small dot indicating the Eclector that was moving through space, circling it slightly to get a better view. Yondu followed the boy with his eyes. 

Peter touched a planet on the edge of the map and let out a wow when it zoomed in on it, showing its surface and a text he couldn't read. It seemed to mostly be desert, a few dots on the planet's surface seemed to pinpoint cities, usually near large bodies of water. Peter reached out to touch one of them when Yondu suddenly barked “That ain`t a toy!”

The boy jumped back slightly startled. "I wasn't gonna ruin it or nothing" he mumbled, but did move away from the map.

He noticed Tullk by one of the consoles, and approached him, seemingly recognizing him. It looked like the boy was feeling less anxious when approaching other people. Yondu was not sure it was going to help with the less terran looking on his crew, but it was a good start. 

"Captain, is there anything you need?" a voice interrupted his thoughts and he looked up at Kraglin who was now standing next to the captain's chair.

He just told him to catch up to what had happened in his absence and start looking for contracts near or on Irma. He did not know how long it would take to change the engine but he figured it would take at least a few days, so why not be productive. There was always work for ravagers in these parts, you just had to look for it.

“I'll find something, Captain” Kraglin smiled, clearly happy to be allowed to work again. Yondu would be lying if he didn't admit, at least to himself, that he was happy too. Horuz was not a bad replacement but Kraglin had been his first mate since the beginning. He knew what Yondu wanted done, sometimes before Yondu himself did. 

Tullk had started explaining Peter about how the star map was used for navigation. Telling him that if he had pushed it wrong, he could accidentally change their course. "So where are we going now?" Peter asked, before he was interrupted when Kraglin called out to him, “Peter, Lets go!”

“Okay” Peter shot a apologetic look towards the man, “see you later”

“Aye” Tullk replied, “later, lad.”

As the first mate left with the boy in tow, Peter turned in the doorway and stuck his tongue out at Yondu before the door slid shut.

“Brat.” Yondu mumbled, he was definitely going to regret this.

* * *

 “Hey Kraglin, why does Tullk sound like he's scottish?"

“Sco-tish? What's that?” Kraglin seemed to more occupied with the handheld device the old man had given him than the conversation.

“It’s an accent..” he explained, “How come all of you sound different?” The hraxian stopped in his tracks and thought about how to explain it, “'m not the right person to ask about how it works but I know it's different for everyone.”

“Do I speak in an accent to you?” Peter wondered, the translator had certainly had an odd effect. He had no idea why but it even _looked_ like Kraglin was speaking english now.

“You do” he confirmed.

They walked past a small group of men that was standing in the hallway talking. Their conversation died down when Peter passed them and he could feel them staring. He walked a bit faster but Kraglin did not seem bothered at all, not even glancing up from the screen.

If what the blue jerk had said was true, someone on this ship had wanted to eat him. Even if both Yondu and Kraglin had told him he was safe, what if he was caught by that alien before anyone could help him?

That was why Peter had put his mother's swiss army knife in his pockets this morning. If he was going to stay here, he needed to protect himself. Who knew what kind of aliens and creatures he would meet, and who knew if they were friendly.

He followed the man around the ship and tried to memorize the path they had been taking. The ship, which he had learned was named "The Eclector", was massive. Peter had no idea how he was going to remember all the hallways and rooms.  He had been told at breakfast that he was expected to be on his own in the future, as Kraglin had work to do and couldn't “play” with him all the time. When he had asked _what_  the people on the ship actually did, he had learned that Kraglin and the other people on the ship were called Ravagers.

Ravagers were essentially space pirates, and Peter had become excited at the thought of that. Usually when he thought about pirates he thought of the swashbuckling, eye patch wearing and rum drinking variety. He supposed that they would be mostly the same, but in space! None of the ravagers had parrots or eye patches, but he had seen someone on the ship with a weird looking mechanical eye.

Kraglin had explained that they stole things for others or themselves, caught people with bounties on their heads and smuggled illegal wares, among other things. Peter had wanted to ask more questions but another alien had come and sat with them and started talking with Kraglin, so he decided to save it for later. 

He put on his headphones and turned on his walkman, and after a while started singing quietly with the song, “I can't read about it, burns the skin from your eyes...” In front of him, Kraglin glanced back, amused at the boys little dance while he walked.

They stopped in front of a door and Kraglin tried opening it. The door slid open 1/3 of the way and then stopped. Peter removed his headset and asked what he was doing. "Gym door is busted" Kraglin shook the door a little and looked around the frame, "something is blocking it in there...a screw or something" 

"We can still get in..." Peter slipped through the opening with ease, "see!" The first mate let out a laugh and slipped through too, "Yea. That ain't an excuse ta leave it like this though...some of the heftier guys are gonna have problems." 

"I'll be back. Stay." Kraglin went back out through the opening and Peter followed, looking after the retreating form that disappeared down the hall. 

He put on his headset again and sat down next to the door, hopefully it wouldn't take too long.

* * *

Unlike Yondu, Kraglin was not someone with a very aggressive personality.

While he was firm in his role as first mate and made sure the rules on the ship was upheld, he was generally a quiet and mellow man. So when Yondu heard that a situation was unraveling between his first mate and the new recruits, he knew it was probably not Kraglin who started it.

It was one of the mechanics who had contacted the bridge and said that it looked like a fight was brewing, just in case anyone was interested. Some recruits had closed in on the kid who, at the time, seemed to be alone.

Yondu had assumed that Kraglin had left the boy only temporarily and would be back shortly, but decided to head briskly towards the gym where the mechanic had seen them. He had given an order that no one were to touch the boy. If these recruits couldn't follow an order which was essentially doing _nothing,_  there would be consequences.

When he got there, Kraglin was already there, standing between Peter and one of the recruits they had picked up at Pife. A yellow skinned bulky aakon was in Kraglin`s face, with a his hand against his left side.  "Tha` sniveling brat cut me and Imma teach`im a lesson!" he growled and pointed at Peter who was cowering behind Kraglin, making a noise as if choking back a sob. The boy was grasping something that looked like a very small knife in his hands so hard his knuckles were turning white. It didn't look like they had noticed him yet so he decided to see how this would play out. Kraglin knew how to take care of himself.

The hraxian was giving the recruit a hard stare, "Ya were shaking him like a ragdoll _before_ he pricked ya. The captain said no one was to touch the boy!"

"I don't care what the captain said!" the aakon snarled, "I ain't gonna let that little shit get away with this", behind him his three friends voiced their agreement. That did not seem to sit well with Kraglin at all and he bared his teeth slightly, "I advise ya to hold yer tongue or I will remove it from yer mouth!" Kraglin did not raise his voice in any way, but there was a dangerous look in his eyes. 

“You!?" the aakon laughed mockingly, tilting his head to the side, "A little hraxian bitch like you couldn't eveACK!!” Immediately Kraglin had pulled out a blade shaped like a claw and sliced the big brutes neck open. The aakon made a gurgling sound and tried to stem the blood flow with his hands, a panicked expression on his face as he realised what had happened. He gasped for air as he choked on his own blood. 

“Holy shit!” The one of the man's friends pulled out a gun and aimed at the first mate but bellowed in pain as the yaka arrow pierced straight through his hand and gun with a sharp whistle. "FUCK!" He fell to his knees and held his bleeding hand close to his chest with a groan of pain. Yondu tutted as he walked closer and the two other recruits finally realised that their captain was there and held up their hands to show that they were unarmed.

The aakon fell to his knees, coughing and splattering the light green blood out on the floor. Peter jumped back so that he was standing with his back to the wall, as if he was scared that the blood would touch him.

The aakon fell limp and slumped to the ground. Lack or air and blood rendering the man unconscious quickly. Kraglin turned to the three remaining recruits. They stepped back, clearly scared they would be next. "This is a misunderstanding, captain" one of them tried to defend themselves, "we weren't gonna hurt him. He was overreacting!" Kraglin calmly wiped the blood off his knife, and shot a glare at the three men who were now refusing to meet his eyes.

Peter had started to cry silently, face pale and eyes still locked at the man bleeding out on the floor. Kraglin put away his knife and sat down on his haunches to get on the boys level, "Peter, look at me." The boys wide eyes looked away from the aakon and met the hraxians, he looked absolutely terrified.

"It was good that you tried to protect yourself." Kraglin said calmingly and took the little knife the boy was clutching out of his hands, "you did very well."

"He grabbed me and..and..he said.."Peter sniffled, trying to explain himself but only becoming more upset.

Kraglin started leading the boy away from the scene and Yondu could hear Kraglin repeat "You did very well, Peter." 

Yondu grinned maliciously as he walked closer to the recruits that still had their hands up, "That _hraxian bitch_ ain't first mate simply by merit of being so darn cute. I would have killed all of you though." The recruits gulped, they- knew they had fucked up.

Yondu called for some of his officers to come and escort the recruits to the brig and to get rid of the aakon.

* * *

Had it not been for the dusty vents on Stakar Ogord`s ship “Starhawk”, Yondu and Kraglin might never have met.

It had been the start of the night cycle and Yondu was just about to head down to his bunk. He was just dropping off a tool he had borrowed at the janitorial room, when he heard a low sneeze.

He froze for a second, looking around the room, wondering where it came from. He was pretty sure that he was alone in the room. Both the janitors were off shift at this hour, and the light had been off when he had entered.

Yondu then though he could hear someone shift slightly but decided to pretend he heard nothing and put the tool back in its place. He turned off the lights and left for the surveillance room. Something was off, and he was going to investigate it.

After being allowed to check the security footage by Trillian, the woman on watch at the time, he pulled out the video from the storage room. He was not too sure about what he thought he would find, but searched for the time when he had been there.

He saw himself put the tool back, turning off the main lights, and closing the door. Yondu waited for a few minutes, just looking at the dim lit room and wondering if he had overreacted. Could just have been an orloni or something.

In the dim light he then saw a hand open the air vent grate carefully. A thin figure that crawled out and dropped lithely to the floor. The lights were then turned on and the door was locked from the inside.

It seemed that they had picked up a stowaway.

“Oh. my. stars!” Trillian mumbled, rewinding the video and playing it again. “I'm going to get in trouble for not noticing this, aren't I?”

The person was dressed in black and indigo clothes, had ash brown short hair and a bandana tied around the lower parts of their face. Probably to avoid breathing in the dust and filth that usually gathered in the vents.

Had not stopped them from sneezing though.

Yondu and Trillian observed as the person removed their bandana, they zoomed in on the face revealing that they were a adolescent boy.

Yondu comm`ed the bridge immediately, and Stakar had come down after a while, his first mate Ivo in tow. When they asked what was so damn important for the both of them to come down here, the video was rewinded and they got to see their _guest_ for themselves.

"Huh...would ya look at that" Oddly enough, Stakar didn't even look mad, he was smiling. Yondu had a feeling that if the boy in the video had been an adult, he would not have been as happy about it.

“Zoom in on the boy`s neck” Ivo commanded, Trillian froze the picture of the boy as he was greedily drinking water from the sink.

“He must have climbed on board at Dymrinn, sir” Ivo stated as he studied the tattoos that could be seen on the neck, and Stakar nodded in agreement.

“How do ya figure?” Yondu asked,  “I mean, couldn't he have boarded _literally_ anywhere? We haven't been on that planet for weeks.”

“Those black and blue clothes and tattoos means he belongs to the Kr`m Haka.” the first mate replied, “So that is the only place this boy could have come from."

Yondu had heard of them. The Kr`m Haka was a clan of assassins that had their headquarters at Dymrinn. They were well respected in their field and had almost never in history failed a contact. They were usually just hired by people of the elite, as their services were expensive. Nobles, rich people with petty grudges or politicians were among the usual clientele.

“He is too young to be done with their training, so I assume he is trying to escape” Stakar zoomed in on the boys face, "way too young"

“Escape from what?” Trillian asked, they had come to the end of the footage in the storage room. The boy unlocked the door, tied the bandana around his face and turned off the lights before climbing back into the vent and closing the grate after himself.

“The Kr`m Haka, of course” Stakar offhandedly said as he rewinded the video again, starting it off from the beginning.

“Fuck are you talking about?” Yondu asked bewildered “You just said he belonged with `em…"

Stakar grimaced a little, “Children don't join them willingly, Yondu.”

“Unlike the Kree, who like to have a “bill of sale” on their slaves, these people don`t waste money and just take the children they want.” Ivo elaborated as he looked up something on his tablet, “they are then trained and indoctrinated for years until they _belong_."

Yondu scowled. So this kid had been kidnapped by the assassins, and then forced to become one of them? 

"The children that don't bend to their captors will, are "dealt with" fairly early so that only the obedient children are left” Stakar continued, “This boy has their tattoos so he must at least be 13, as they only mark the children who has survived six tournaments."

“Tournaments?” Yondu had a vague suspicion that these tournaments were like some of the _games_ that the kree liked to arrange from time to time. Little contests of who had the best battle slave, that were probably amusing for the kree, but not so much for the battle slaves.

“They thin out the children of each age group every year, pitting two children against each other, the winner lives another year.” Ivo mumbled and then let out a "found him" Ivo turned the tablet towards them. It was a bounty, 35.000 units for delivering the boy alive to the Kr`m Haka Overseers. The picture showed the boy from the security footage, under the photo was the name "Kraglin" and the word "Deserter"

Stakar whistled, "They must _really_ want him back to dish out that much. Just so they can punish and kill him themselves, I reckon."

Yondu knew that Dymrinn had a very strict airspace, Stakar had complained about how hard it was to get permission to dock there, the boy must have seen them land and taken the opportunity to sneak onboard. "How come he could sneak onto the ship? Don't they watch the kids if they are slaves?"

“The ones they mark with the tattoos are the children that they trust are one of them. They get enough freedom to leave the fortress where they grew up, usually doing chores around Dymrinn for their overseers”

As they looked over the footage from the previous days, they saw the boy steal food and drink from the mess hall and exiting the vents in the less busy parts of the ship to use the facilities. Once he was seen using a computer that had not been turned off and searched for something. Trillian found the computer number and looked at the logs. “He accessed the ship log and looked at this upcoming date.”

“The date we are scheduled to restock at...Hrax...makes sense, the kid looks hraxian, after all” Ivo smirked, “He's trying to reach home."

Ivo was a hraxian too, he had once been a captain himself on a ship called Foxfire. That ship had been passed to his first mate when he joined Stakars crew as a favour to the previous Ravager Leader decades ago. 

Stakar told Trillian to check where the boy most likely was at the moment, and as she did he told Ivo and Yondu to follow him.

* * *

 Kraglin was dozing, there wasn't really a lot to do in air vents. During his time on the ravager ship he had probably slept more than ever in his life, including the time he was in a six day coma after an accident. His overseer Graz had told him that they almost decided on ending his misery right then and there, before he had started showing signs of waking up.

He heard a whistle and opened his eyes, and at the end of the vent something was hovering towards him. It was a flying arrow. He blinked a few times, trying to figure out if he was dreaming or not. There was another whistle and the arrow moved closer.

He inched backwards a little, unsure what was going on. The arrow moved closer again, faster.

It was going to hit him.

As fast as he could he scrambled backwards, in his confusion not caring how much noise he must have been making. His feet kicked the grate and he slid backwards and out, into someone's waiting arms.

He squeaked as the person that had caught him manhandled him expertly into a chokehold, and tightened the grip. The man holding him blocked the kick that he aimed at his head and then the elbow trying to hit his ribs.

“Not bad, pup” His grip tightened, blocking off his air completely, “but kick me again and i'll snap your neck!” Kraglin wheezed but stilled, the grip on his throat loosened, lowering him so that his legs were touching the ground. 

The man he recognised as the captain of the ship was standing in front of him with a shit eating grin on his face, by his side was a centaurian, now holding the arrow that had forced him out of the vent.

* * *

“The man holding you is my first mate. If you start anything, he will kill you.”  The boy didn't say anything, he just tried to avoid Stakars eyes like a child that had been caught doing something naughty. Which Yondu supposed he kinda was.

“I can see that you are from the Kr`m Haka." the arcturian stated, trying to get the kid talking. "You are still in their garb, after all."

Stakar pulled out the tablet, showing the boy the 35.000 unit bounty with his face on it. He frowned.

“This is you isn't it, Kraglin?” Stakar asked, “It looks like they want you back alive for some reason.”

The boy did not look scared or worried at all as he hissed “If you are going to kill me, get it over with!”

Stakar ignored the boy's outburst, and walked closer. “Kind of _stupid_ to hide in a ravager ship, don't you think?”

“I didn't know this was a ravager ship” the boy replied challengingly, “and I didn't particularly care at the time neither."

“Why didn't you just steal one of the M-ships? Instead of risking getting found?” the archurian asked, genuinely curious "You had the opportunity, and the longer you stayed the more likely you were to be caught."

Stakar seemed slightly intrigued by the seeming lack of self-preservation the kid was showing. They weren't actually planning on hurting him, but the kid didn't know this. Yondu could feel that, despite his efforts to not show emotion, the boy was scared. His artificial tahlei may not be as powerful as his real one had been, but he could still feel a slight empathic connection with the people around him. The fledgeling assassin looked small and thin, even more so when he was trapped in the arms of the first mate. 

“You would have noticed a missing ship within hours…” The boys cold blue eyes finally met Stakars, “i've been here for weeks and nobody noticed me till now.” There was a little bit of pride in the boy's voice but Stakar just cackled, “I get it...you can`t pilot an M-ship, can you?”

The boy didn't answer, he looked at the ground again.  

“How old are you?” Stakar spoke softer to sound less threatening. Yondu remembered that voice from when he had been freed. The same voice that promised that he wouldn't be hurt, and that he wouldn't have to fear his Kree masters anymore.

“Seventeen” The boy mumbled after a little while, but Ivo apparently wasn't buying it. “Try again, kid”

“Sixteen?” the boy then said, “at least I think so...”

“You are _not_ sixteen, you are much too small to be sixteen” Ivo sounded annoyed, “either they haven't been feeding you right or you are fourteen, at most.” Yondu personally did not think the boy looked _that_ young, but Ivo probably had a better frame of reference.

“I _think_ i'm sixteen” the boy insisted, and the elder hraxian seemed to consider it before he decided “Fifteen.”

“What?” Kraglin sounded genuinely confused by the elder man's statement.

“How did you get into my ship” Stakar continued with his interrogation. The boy told them that he had snuck in through the docking bay as whoever was on duty at the time had left it unguarded for a while as they went outside to smoke. 

Stakar looked over the dust covered teenager again before he spoke again, “Since I am such a _generous_ soul...I have decided to not collect that bounty”

The boy looked up with genuine confusion, and a little hope in his eyes. 

“I will even permit you to stay until we dock at Hrax"

"You _won't_ take me back to Dymrinn?" The young hraxian looked, understandably, very wary.

"I won't," Stakar snapped his fingers and Ivo let the boy go "but you do owe me for the food you have been stealing, so I _am_ putting you to work."

The teenager rubbed his neck a little, and was turned around to face the older hraxian. "You will do everything I tell you to do." The man said, "If you argue, whine or defy my orders in _any way_. I will throw your ass out of the airlock faster than you can imagine. Is that clear, boy?” 

“Yes sir." The teenager replied timidly, "...allowing me to stay until we reach Hrax is more than i ever believed a Ravager would do for a stowaway."

Stakar grinned, “We`re Ravagers, not complete bastards.” 

* * *

Yondu had only seen the boy a few times during the first few days, he figured he had been settled with busy work most of the time. He started off very easily agitated and a bit skittish. Walking around as if someone was going to turn on him any second but calmed down after a few days under Ivo`s command. In the beginning, he had apparently thought that they were just screwing with him, and were actually planning on delivering him back to Dymrinn anyway. 

When Yondu had seen him in the mess hall together with Ivo on the fourth day he decided to sit down at their table. The teenager was dressed in a jumpsuit in the black and blue of Ogord and he looked more rested and less dusty than when they pulled him out of the air vents.

“Why did you decide to run?” Yondu asked casually, but Kraglin gave him a dirty look at the question. Clearly he didn't feel like talking about it.

“Don't ask” Ivo answered for him, and they sat in an awkward silence for a few minutes, but Yondu was not going give up so he changed the subject.

“So...Hrax, huh? What do you hope to find?” Yondu hoped that the teenager was willing to discuss that at least.

“I know the name i was born with...” the boy spoke quietly, as of worried the people on the tables near them would hear, “I think I know my last name too.”

“Ya _think_ ya know yer last name?” Yondu did not know how young you would have to not really know your last name, he remembered his own and he was only been around five when…

“It`s Obfonteri” Kraglin mumbled, “I'm sure that's what it was…and I can ask to view the archives at any officials hall on Hrax and find out where my family is.” 

So the teenager hoped to find and reunite with his family. To start a new life? It was a nice hope to have, but Hrax was a humongous planet. What if he didn't find them? 

During the next few weeks on the ship Yondu had asked him once in a while about what it was like with the Kr`m Haka. In the beginning Kraglin had mostly preferred not to talk about it. Kraglin had seemed particularly startled when he was asked who he had to kill to earn his tattoos. He had clearly not expected Yondu to ask anything like that, but he answered him anyway.

Kraglin said that he could remember the name of one of his closest friends being announced as his opponent at last years tournament, and what he remembered next was being congratulated by his overseer. He had not even realised that he had actually killed her until he was washing her blood of his hands. 

"I don't think about her as much anymore." Kraglin sighed, "It's been a while." 

Yondu was no stranger to killing people he considered comrades, being a battle slave meant doing what your _master_ told you to do. If you valued your life, you did what you were told. Just like when Kraglin was told to kill by his overseer, he would have to, or die at the hands of his opponent. 

"I think i pretended it was normal to live like that for so long that I started to believe it myself" Kraglin continued, "but it's not normal to be praised for killing your friends, is it?"

Yondu realised over the course of the journey that while Kraglin was not someone one might call _book smart,_ he was not stupid. If anything, he was just naive to the world outside of Dymrinn. The Kr`m Haka only focused on lessons an assassin would need in their work after all.

You would not need to know the customs or history of other people if your only objective was to kill them. Kraglin could read, was decent at math, knew toxicology and anatomy. The latter two not for medical reasons. Last but not least, just like Yondu himself, he had been trained in combat from an early age.

The young hraxian proved himself useful, doing what he was told and showing the willingness to learn when he was tasked with something he couldn't do.

When they had reached Hrax many weeks after, Yondu felt a little bit disappointed watching the boy`s form disappearing into the crowd at the port. Yondu would not have minded if he had stayed.

“I doubt he will find anything.” Ivo stated as he turned to walk back into the ship, "He'll be back."

Ivo had kept an eye on Kraglin, Yondu had assumed it was a hraxian thing and it mostly stemmed in the fact that Kraglin was underage. Yondu doubted the elder hraxian would ever admit it, but he had really bonded with the younger man. Ivo said he believed that Kraglin would be back, but Yondu wasn't so sure.

He thought the kid was making a mistake by leaving, Stakar would take him on board if he asked. Yondu decided to walk after him, locating the nearest Officials building where Kraglin would need to go to access the family archives. 

He followed the signs that would lead him in the right direction, through some small and clamped streets and over a few bridges that were stretched over canals filled with boats. When he found the building he sat down to wait in a bar with a view of the officials hall entrance and had a few drinks. After a few hours the teenager had exited the door and sat down on one of the many steps. Yondu chose that moment to sneak out of the bar and approach the despondent hraxian.

"How did it go?"

Kraglin seemed surprised to see him but tapped his leg with a sigh, "Kraglin Obfonteri doesn't exist." he replied with a blank look on his face, “I...don't exist.”

In the archives there had, apparently, been no match for the surname Obfonteri or a Kraglin with a surname like that. He had checked every Kraglin that had a surname beginning with an O born in the last 20 years but he had not recognized any of them. The person helping him had suggested some alternative spellings of the names but Kraglin just couldn't remember if any of them were his. The teenager was understandably, very disappointed. 

“Enough of this pity party, kid. You knew this could happen.” Yondu sat down next to him on the steps, “You have known for years that you might never see your family again.”

This was clearly _not_ what Kraglin wanted to hear by the look of his face.

"I ain't gonna sugarcoat it for ya" Yondu scoffed, "you can stay on Hrax and all...asking every family who ever had a Kraglin over fifteen ago if they lost `im. I don't think i gotta tell you that _that_ is a dumb idea."

"I just hoped i would find _someone_ , okay?" Kraglin glared at the centaurian, "I don't need you laughing, so just stop it!"

"I'm not making fun that you tried." Yondu clarified, he didn't think it was dumb to hope at all.

Kraglin had gotten away from the Kr`m Haka, managed to hide for weeks on a ravager ship before being found and then becoming sorta shanghaied into becoming a temporary ravager himself. He had been in an _incredible_ streak of good luck. Unfortunately it seemed that the good luck had ended.

"I get it, okay." Yondu continued, "but you didn't find anything, so why mull on it."

The teenager crossed his arms and scowled, “I just...I _need_ some time alone. Can you please leave?"

Yondu shrugged and stood up. Walking down the steps he said, “If you are not there tomorrow morning. We leave without you.” 

Kraglin hummed, confirming that he heard what he had said.

"EY!" One of the waiters at the bar were running towards them, clearly having caught on that Yondu had bailed on the bill, "Thief!" 

"Gotta go!" the centaurian waved as he skedaddled to get away from the angry waiter on his tail.

Kraglin continued to sit at the officials hall steps as the centaurian disappeared into the crowd.

The next day at dawn Kraglin boarded the Starhawk, and never looked back.

* * *

“Remember tha` art collector chick?” Kraglin asked and handed Yondu a mug of warm tea made from flower petals, it was a nice pick-me-up after a long day.

Yondu just looked at him blankly.

“We got a weird old vase for her…” the hraxian elaborated, hoping that would ring a bell.  Still nothing.

“Paid 330.000 units for it?”

“Oh! Her..." Figures that Yondu would remember the large sum of units but not the person who had paid it. Yondu had stolen a valuable vase for the kymellian female for her fancy pants art collection a while back. "What about her?"

“She said she has a new job for us, if we`re interested.”

Whatever could she want this time? He supposed it didn't really matter, as long as it wasn't more vases. She also requested that they meet her in person, for some reason she didn't want to just send them the info. 

He told Kraglin to ask her if she was near Irma or could come to them. The Elector would be stranded there for a few days and the crew would take a well deserved break in the meantime. He could use that time to discuss the job she had in mind. Yondu was looking forward to having a small vacation, and he knew Kraglin was too. The amount of real quality time they had together, were few and far between. This time, however, it wouldn't just be them. They would have to bring Peter with them. It wasn't as if they could pawn him off on anyone else.

Yondu looked over at Peter who was sitting in a corner with his walkman on, listening to music and staring into space. He swore that terran were addicted to that thing, keeping it with him all the time. 

“and you are really serious about keeping him here?” Kraglin asked Yondu, being careful so no one else could hear. “I am.” Yondu responded, “Do you have a problem with that?” The first mate shook his head, “Not as such...but he ain't really safe with us. Is he?"

Actually, Yondu was a little bit impressed that the boy had the guts to try to stab someone that was attacking him. The boy had been acting so frightful so he hadn't really thought he had it in him. He might have discarded the boy as a wimp a bit too early.

“If we take him back to Terra, all Ego has to do then is send someone else ta get him. He _is_ safer here.” He took a gulp of his tea, expecting the discussion to be over. Kraglin sat down on the armrest and took a sip of his own cup, “I suppose that makes sense...but calling him safe with us is a bit of a stretch”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The chapter title is from the song Toy Soldiers by Martika.  
> Yaay. Finally I got to make a "how they met" thingie.  
> I said i was going to write this chapter quicker than the last, unfortunately for y`all my word don't mean squat.  
> I genuinely think that Kraglin could never have been Yondu's first mate if he was stupid and/or weak.  
> Kraglin`s knife is a karambit.  
> Stakar's first mate Ivo is not anyone of the guys Stakar had with him in the movie. He's dead by then.  
> -Mindless


	5. Hangin` Tough

The days after the new recruits had been sent to the brig, naturally, the fate of the loudmouth aakon had been shared all over the ship.

Most of the ravagers couldn't care less about his death, as it was his own stupidity that caused it. The relatively new ravagers had given Kraglin, and by default Peter, a wide berth. Not many really dared to say as much as a word to the kid. Which was fine.

On the other hand, there were some of the crew who had really taken a shine to him. Kin always had an extra sweet fruit up her sleeve for him at supper, and Tullk would invite him to try the games in the rec room. Even Horuz had apparently tolerated his presence enough to _not_ throw him out of the bridge when he came there. 

Yondu had to admit the boy wasn't so horrible, when he was quiet. He also had a nasty habit of touching things he shouldn't, and asking questions later. Like when he almost disabled the artificial gravity, and then acted all offended when he was yelled at for it.

The trip to the planet Irma had been a sluggish affair, as only one engine meant they were unable to jump properly. In less than 10 hours, however, they would finally dock at the mechanic.

Soon they would have a fully operational ship again. The mechanic had estimated that they needed at _least_ five days for the check and repair, and should any problems come up they might need more.

Yondu was personally not in a rush, and his crew would be more than satisfied with the time off.  

He was walking towards the bridge when he spotted Oblo, Gef and Retch. The three men were standing close to each other and peeking into the gym, whispering and snickering amongst themselves. 

Gef noticed him when he came closer and straightened up with a "Captain", hitting his elbow into Retches side so he too would pay attention. They three smiled at their captain innocently, obviously hiding something.

"What?" Yondu sighed with a disinterested look on his face. 

"Ya might wanna look at this, Cap." Oblo nodded his head towards the half open gym door and Yondu decided to indulge the man. 

So that was where his first mate was.

At the back of the gym Kraglin seemed to be instructing Peter and positioning his hand in a fighting stance. The boy was holding a dull training knife and had a look of concentration on his face. He was dressed in a ravager jumpsuit that the tailor had fixed for him a while ago, when his terran clothes had been declared too  _rank_ to use.

Oblo put on a nasal voice in a parody of a well known culture anthropologist that they sometimes watched on the holopad, "We observe an adult hraxian, teaching his pup the finer points of _cutting a bitch._ "

The three men snickered among themselves again, but Yondu just kept watching the two. Kraglin`s _pup_? It was an odd thought. Yondu knew that Kraglin liked the kid, no matter how much the man halfheartedly denied it. He wouldn't have put up with him as much if he didn't, no matter what Yondu had ordered him to do. 

Peter swung his knife towards Kraglin, who easily avoided it. Peter followed, and with a grunt swung his knife upwards. "Yer holding it wrong again" Kraglin commented and blocked another swipe, "And you are wide open." He swiped the boy's legs from under him. Peter got the wind knocked out of him and lay on the floor for a bit before sitting up, his lips in a sulky pout. Yondu wondered if they had been doing this for long. Peter had asked for lessons in self defense after the _incident_ and Kraglin had said he would try to coach him. 

"Again" Kraglin ordered, and got ready. Peter got back into position and tried again, failed again and ended up on his face. The boy sat up on his knees with a face of someone about the cry as he rubbed his nose. 

"Again" Kraglin sighed and dragged a hand through his hair, Peter continued to sit on the floor. "Suck it up and try _again_ " the hraxian repeated exasperated.

"No." Peter mumbled out moodily, "I hurt all over now." It was clearly an exaggeration as the kid looked fine. 

Retch continued with his narration, putting on a half serious face. "Now we observe that instead of fawning over the distressed youth, the hraxian is more practical and tells the pup that whining is for weak ass babies" The three men in the hallway chortled loudly. Compared to regular sparring sessions, Kraglin was treating the boy as if he was made of glass. 

" _Is_ he's being a bit rough, though?" Gef asked, almost to himself. "Nah" Retch picked at his teeth with a finger, "want him to be a pussy?"

"Can you fuckheads get out of here! Yer distracting the boy!" Kraglin`s voice suddenly boomed and all four of the spectators suddenly realised that they had been noticed. Kraglin was glaring at them from across the room and Peter looked anxious, realising that someone else had been watching him fail all this time.

Oblo, Gef and Retch shared a look and decided to take off, watching the boy screw up wouldn't be half as fun when he knew they were there.

"You calling me a fuckhead, Obfonteri?" Yondu asked teasingly, sauntering into the gym. 

"No, sir." Kraglin replied, surprised that Yondu had been one of the people watching. Peter straightened up and absently played with the tip of his training knife with his finger, not looking at Yondu as he came closer.

"Seems that about half of the crew ain't seen the message on the bulletin about Irma" Yondu told Kraglin, "I need you to inform them that they all have to leave the ship when we dock."

"In that case," Kraglin said, putting the training knife away on the weapon rack, "could ya take it from here, Captain? I'm sure someone of yer expertise would be an excellent teacher."

Was Kraglin trying to sweet talk him into babysitting? Because that seemed to be _exactly_ what he was trying to do.

"I`ll come with" Peter offered, apparently not too keen being left behind with Yondu either. 

"You stay. The captain is gonna learn ya stuff because..." Kraglin fluttered his eyelashes in an exaggerated manner and gave Yondu a toothy grin. "I would be _ever_  so _grateful_ if he did" 

Damn it.

Hearing no protest, Kraglin turned around and walked away. Peter looked disappointed after the man as he disappeared out the door, and then looked skeptically up at the centaurian he was left with. Yondu returned the stare, showing that he was just as unenthusiastic.

He wondered why Kraglin had started his training with knives, it was not the logical place to start.

The first thing Yondu had learned about fighting was hit first, and hit _hard_. Then again, knives were the weapon the hraxian was the most comfortable with. The lean man was someone who thrived in close combat, with or without weapons. If one could ever call a hraxian who had teeth unarmed. Yondu decided to start with the most basic thing he could think of.

"You ain't so good with this fighting thing, are you boy?" Yondu interrogated as he started to circle the terran, "ever been in a brawl?"

"I've been in fights," Peter defended crossing his arms, "but I'm just a kid." He had had the odd fights with jerks at his school and roughhousing sessions with his mom or some of the nicer boys at the orphanage. What he had learned here was a bit different.

"That right?" Yondu then cuffed the boy on the back of the head, Peter let out a surprised yelp and rubbed the spot that was slapped "no one is gonna go easy on ya just `cause  _you're a_   _kid_ " 

"If you end up in a fight, you _have_ to win." Yondu hoped that the boy would take this to heart quickly. The universe was full of dangers and any kind of hesitation could mean your death, the faster he learned that life wasn't just flowers and rainbows the better. "Fight dirty if you have to." 

"That's not fair." Peter said confused, wasn't there supposed to be rules in fights? Chivalry and all that?

Yondu just grinned, this kid was kind of hilarious. If there was one thing he knew, it was that the universe would never be fair. "Fares are for kiddies, boy. There ain't no such thing as dirty fighting when your life is at stake"

Judging by his frown, Peter seemed to consider what he had said. Good. He was not sure what the boy had already learned, but asked him if he knew how to block.

Peter bit his lip and got in a defensive stance with the training knife, "I`m supposed to stand like this first, right?" 

"No..Well yes, but" Yondu then grabbed the knife from him and threw it over his shoulder in the general direction of the weapons rack, "without a weapon."

Peter shook his head, and Yondu got in a defensive position and the boy mimicked. "Like that...If you're going to throw punches, you've got to learn to _get_ punched, too" 

"You're going to hit me?" Peter asked, clearly very opposed to the idea if the look on his face was anything to go by. 

"Don't worry about it, kid. Just try to block”

* * *

Half an hour later, Peter was sitting on the examination table in the Med Bay with a piece of cloth against his bleeding nose, scowling at Yondu who was standing near the entrance.

"It was a totally unavoidable accident" Yondu stated as the doctor sent him a questioning look. It wasn't as if he _wanted_ to punch the boy, he had just overestimated the kids reaction time. Wasn't his fault the boy couldn't duck.

"A nose bleed is still not a good reason to bother me" the doctor grumbled, making the terran put away the cloth and examined the reddened nose with a small flashlight. "Yer fine. Nothing broken."

Peter put the cloth back, as it was still bleeding a little bit. 

The pink skinned doctor took a hold of Peter's head and turned it so he could take a look at the incision where the translator had been placed, finding only a red scar. “It has healed up unexpectedly quickly" he sounded surprised, but maybe terrans had a good healing factor.

He left Peter on the examination table and walked over to one of his many medicine cabinets. The doctor took out something that looked like a water pistol and put an ampule of green liquid in it. "What's that." Peter asked uneasily, eyeing the thing with suspicion. Last time, the man had drugged him and he would be a fool to let his guard down now.

"Nothin`. " the doctor held it just like a gun, and walked back to the terran. He then put on a surprised look as if something unexpected was behind Peter and let out a small gasp. 

The boy turned his head curiously, seeing only Yondu who had a suspiciously large grin on his face. As soon as Peter's head was turned, the doctor put the barrel of the pistol against his arm and pulled the trigger. 

"Ouch! What the heck!" Peter cried out and looked back at the krylorian doctor with disbelief as he removed the barrel of the gun looking thing from his arm, leaving just a tiny wound.

“I ain't got the time to argue with you like last time." was the man's reply, as he removed the now empty ampule from the thing and threw it in the waste bin. _"_ Yer vaccinated. Yer welcome. Git out of my med bay.” 

Yondu laughed heartily at the boy who looked so utterly violated and confused. “Yer bedside manner might be the best thing about you, Teia” he snickered, the doctor glared at him “Hardy Har. Fuck you very much, captain. ”

The man lifted Peter off the examination table and pushed him towards the door. "I better not see you in here for some menial shit again" he said to the boy who, in return, looked very offended and stuck out his tongue before running out the door. Yondu did not feel like following him, the kid would be fine. He knew his way around most of the ship by now.

"Good thing he's only here temporarily, right." the doctor scoffed and started putting away his tools.

Yondu just shrugged, he hadn't really told anyone else than his closest officers that the deal with Ego was, at the moment, not going to happen. 

* * *

A few hours later, Kraglin found Peter in his room asleep. Terra ran on an 24 hour cycle, unlike the one that they used, which ran at _around_ 30 terran hours. Resulting in the boy napping quite often, as he wasn't used to being awake for that long yet

Kraglin told him to pack up his things because while he had been sleeping, the Eclector had landed. He did not have to bring much, but the boy _insisted_ on taking all of his things with him. Just in case someone entered his room while they were gone. 

“Even that pathetic toothpick of a knife?” Kraglin queried, as he examined the comics about the arachnid man the boy loved so much. 

"It's a swiss army knife, and it can do loads of stuff!" Peter said offended, he snatched the comic out of Kraglins hand and placed it in the backpack "It has a bottle opener, scissors and a can opener.."

"If i _ever_ have a problem where either of those things can be used, i'll be sure to ask you." his tone suggested that this would never happen.

He dressed in his cleaned clothes from earth and put his ravager gear in the laundry. They wanted him to dress civilian to avoid unwanted attention. Kraglin himself was dressed in black pants and a blue shirt. Irma was _not_ ravager friendly, at least, not anymore. The Nova Empire sought to bring the planet into their hegemony, and by the looks of things they could succeed. The city they would land in, Ketki, was hopefully still free of the Nova Corps.

Peter lastly put his walkman in the backpack. The only batteries he had left now was the ones in it. He didn't know how long they would last, and perhaps he could find batteries on this planet. 

They locked the door after them and made their way down to the docking area.

“how long will we be gone?” Peter asked, adjusting the backpack. 

“A while...” Kraglin answered unhelpfully, as they entered the hangar. Many of the M-ships were gone as some ravagers had chosen to fly to other places during the hiatus.

"Do ya remember the rules for when we are planetside?” the man asked casually as they continued down to the docking area.

Peter nodded and repeated the rules back to the hraxian as they walked. Always stay close to either Kraglin or Yondu. Don’t touch anything. Don’t eat anything if you don’t know what it is. Don’t talk to strangers. Don't accept food from strangers. Don’t go anywhere with a stranger. Don't tell people he was with ravagers. 

When they got to the loading bay where they would disembark, Kraglin lifted him up and sat him on a crate next to the exit. He said he had some things to do before they could leave and asked Peter to wait. It probably wouldn't take long.

Peter sat down, promising to not go anywhere or leave the ship before the hraxian returned. For a while he simply watched some of the other ravagers leave. He had waved at the ones that he recognized and got some annoyed scowls from ravagers he didn't even know. Some of the guys on this ship were straight up jerks.

There was people entering the Eclector too, they carried tools and had to be the mechanics who was supposed to fix the ship. A few of them looked at him curiously, and some didn't offer him as much as a glance. Some looked human, and others were the very definition of _alien._ He had to do a double take when a honest to god  _lion man_ embarked. He even had a tail!

"Hiya, Petey." a voice chirped and it turned out to be Kin the cook and her sister Zaco. Kin dragged her blue feathered sister along to speak to him. Both Kin and Zaco was wearing pink camisoles and short skirts, dragging little suitcases behind them. 

"Why are you just sitting here? Aren't you excited to see Irma?" Zaco asked, "Daylight's awasting, kiddo"

"Kraglin told me to wait. He and Yondu had to make sure everything was _fiiiiiine_." Peter explained with a sigh. They were taking an awfully long time in his opinion, and what was more important than to check out this planet anyway?

"I`m, like, _so_ stoked to get some days off" Kin giggled, "Ketki has great spas and cheap drinks."

Peter was not allowed to drink and spas were for girls. He sincerely hoped that the planet had other things to do. The two girls made a move to leave, before the yellow feathered woman turned around, "By the by, that thing you asked if i could make...long things made out of plants and in a sauce"

Peter had to think back to remember what he had asked her for, "...Spaghetti?"

"Yeah, basketti. They have something like that here...I don't recall the name but you should _totally_ try it. It's delish." Kin then left with a chipper "See ya, little man" and Zaco waved at him and followed her sister down the gangway.

Peter checked his watch, there had been over an hour since Kraglin told him to wait. What were they doing? He laid down on the crate with a sigh, letting his feet dangle over the side. They had been docked on an alien planet for over two hours and he still hadn't set foot outside. The roof in the docking bay was not what he wanted to be looking at right now. After a little while he got bored and took out his walkman, fishing out his "Totally bitchin` Mix 1" and turning on the B-side where Michael Jackson's "Smooth Criminal" was. 

He wasn't sure how long he laid there, hitting his heel into the side of the crate to the beat of his music. He jerked when suddenly someone kicked into the box he was on top of. 

Peter sat up and saw Yondu, who was not dressed in his Ravager gear. To say that he looked very different would be a lie. Guess he really liked dressing in leather. The red jacket he usually favored had been switched out with a black one and he wore a white undershirt and dark blue...were those jeans? He had a duffel bag hanging from his shoulder and behind him was Kraglin in something that looked awfully like a poncho.

"What are you looking so gloomy fer?" the centaurian demanded. 

"I dunno. I'm bored...it's getting darker outside, and i still haven't seen my first alien planet _ever_ " Peter replied sulkily, jumping down and putting his walkman back in his backpack.

"We had some stuff more important than your wanderlust, kid"   

Kraglin nodded towards the exit and Peter excitedly ran for the door. Finally, he was allowed to go out. He spurted down the gangway and sat his foot on the rose colored ground of Irma, his very first alien planet.

It was already twilight outside and multiple billboards and signs were shining from the town. The air smelled strange, Peter was pretty sure that the air on earth didn't smell anything like this. It wasn't unpleasant, sorta flowery, but he couldn't quite understand _what_ it smelled like. The sounds were different too, there was music coming from the town and the muted sound of people talking and laughing. He started walking but froze as Yondu yelled, "Stay where i can see you, boy."

The two ravagers came down the gangway, "If you get lost here, i ain't spendin` a second looking fer you." 

"Why are _you_ even coming with us?" Peter asked, us naturally meaning him and Kraglin. He understood that he had to stay with one of the ravagers and he had, naturally, thought that that meant Kraglin. He was basically the only person who had looked after him. If this was supposed to be a vacation, sort of, why would Kraglin spend it with the captain anyway?

"Let's get one thing straight here, brat" Yondu replied casually, "It's _you two_ that are coming with _me._ " Kraglin just snickered and followed his captain when he started to walk.

"Whatever" Peter mumbled and rolled his eyes, and followed them as they walked away from the ship. 

* * *

The night sky looked different, there was no moon anywhere in sight and the stars were different too. Peter had learned some of the constellations at school but now it seemed to be pretty useless information. In fact, were they even in the milky way anymore?

There was, apparently, not a lot to see in this part of town. They walked through narrow streets with different shops already closed for the night, small half empty bistros and seedy bars. The aliens here looked mostly just like humans, Peter had hoped too see something really weird like another lion man.

He had been told that they were going to look for a hotel where they could spend the night, and sometime tomorrow they were going to meet a friend of Yondu's called Stakar.

Yondu and Kraglin talked in hushed voices together while they walked and would occasionally laugh. Peter wondered if they had forgotten that he was there. Yondu put his arm around Kraglins waist and pulled him close to whisper something that made the hraxian snicker and push him away with a fond, "screwball." 

When Peter piped up that he was hungry, they decided to stop at a street vendor and bought some type of gooey bbq meat on a stick. Peter had no idea what it actually was, but it didn't taste half bad. He had found out pretty early that usually it was better to _not_ know what he was eating.

Yondu led them to a grey building that did not look very different from the buildings next to it. There was a sign in front of the door which Peter assumed said Hotel, but he had no way of knowing for sure.  When they opened the door, they entered a white room beautifully decorated with colorful flowers and nice looking furniture. 

“This place looks expensive as shit” Kraglin murmured, "We millionaires now or what?"

“It ain't  _that_ pricey, keep your pants on." Yondu gave his bag to Kraglin and walked over to the alien at the front desk. 

She was humanoid, very pale and completely bald, but had red markings in a wavy pattern tattooed on her head. She took a drag of a pipe and exhaled the smoke as she looked at them with an an appraising eye. “Weh yuh ah seh?” she greeted, putting on a friendly face for her guests.

“Everything is everything” Yondu replied, the woman seemed pleased by the answer and put away the pipe, “Wan room, sir?”

“Imma need two rooms connected to each other if you have it. One night.” The alien looked past Yondu and over at Peter, “Oooh. Ya bwoy _big-big_ , eh?”

"Yea. He getting his own." Yondu confirmed, and the lady chuckled and continued to type at her computer. The lady asked Yondu a few more questions but Peter felt like he couldn't quite understand her at all. He scratched the healed cut where his translator was, was it malfunctioning? He made a _psst_   so Kraglin would pay attention to him, “She's hard to understand.” 

“She talking slang...the translator can`t always pick up on that” Kraglin explained, as he grabbed the keycard Yondu passed him. "You'll learn it eventually"

Yondu continued to talk to the woman at the desk as they left and walked four floors up a stairwell. They came out in a claustrophobically small hallway and after a bit of searching they found the two doors that were theirs.

When Peter went to Florida with his mom they got a sea themed room at a motel once. This hotel's theme had to be winter, because it was possibly the whitest room in _existence_. The place was around twice the size of his room on the Eclector and there was a sizeable mattress in the middle of the room. There was no bed frame and no pillow, only a mattress and a thin duvet. 

The room had a small table with chairs near a oval window, a wardrobe and a holopad across from the bed. There were two other doors, one that lead to a bathroom and the other lead into the room that Kraglin and Yondu would stay in. Peter followed the hraxian in when he opened it. The room was practically identical. The only difference was that they had a door that lead out to a balcony overlooking a small garden in a courtyard. 

Peter walked back into his own room and to the bathroom. He was happy to find that this bathroom was just like on earth, it also had a large square bathtub and shower.

He asked into the bedroom if he could take a bath. “Do whatever, kid. The room is yours for the night.” Kraglin called back, busy looking through his bag. 

There was buttons on the wall over the tub but he had no idea what it said. He _really_ should learn how to read. He pushed one button, and it lit up. He waited but nothing happened. He tried another button and it to lit up but still nothing happened.

"Okay...but how does it work?" Peter asked. 

"Ugh-hold on", Kraglin entered the bathroom, unclicked the glowing buttons and showed him what the buttons did. He taught him how to regulate the temperature and put the water on. 

“When you remove your clothes, put them here” he pushed a blue button and a panel opened in the wall. “When you have done that, just push the button again and all the clothes will be shot up to the hotel laundry room.”

“I don't have any other clothes.” Peter did not like to sleep naked, it was clammy and uncomfortable.

Kraglin looked puzzled, “Didn't you see the clothes in the wardrobe. They are there for you to use, and tomorrow yer clothes will be cleaned and pressed back here where you put them.” 

The door going to the hallway opened. Yondu had apparently finished talking to the lady at the front desk. 

Kraglin opened a cabinet that was under the sink and took out some small bottles “These are soaps, and i reckon all of them will make you smell like you fell in a bowl of fruit”

Kraglin then told him to go to sleep after he was done taking a bath. They had a lot to do tomorrow and it was already late. Peter nodded, it was a slightly dishonest nod but Kraglin did not need to know that. “Lastly... don't ya come barging in without knocking.” he said sternly.

“Why?” Peter asked, why was it important to knock?

“because...there is a high risk that you will get a full view of Yondu in his underwear if you just barge in, or worse” Kraglin leaned closer and whispered “without `em.”

“Ew.” Peter mumbled, a wandering image of a big blue butt bounced into his imagination. He was definitely going to knock. 

Kraglin left Peter's room and closed the door connecting the two rooms.

“High risk of seeing me without my underwear, eh?” 

Kraglin turned to the centaurian who was sitting on the mattress with his workpad, “Safety measure, Captain.” Kraglin removed his poncho and hanged it over a chair.  

"Chick at the desk said that the Nova Corp does have a few corpsmen stationed in this city" Yondu revealed, "looks like Irma will definitely be joining the empire"

"Shame...Hey, Captain. Did you see the shower? It's pretty big." Kraglin asked as he removed his shirt. Yondu shook his head. "I'll look at it later" he mumbled and continued to look through the messages on his workpad. 

"Very spacious." Kraglin added and walked into the bathroom, "uh-huh" Yondu hummed but didn't look up. 

"Yep... _very big_ " Kraglin nodded to himself and closed the door. Soon the soothing muted sound of rushing water could be heard coming from the inside. Yondu looked up from his workpad, a thoughtful frown on his face. Why would Kraglin think that he cared _at all_ about the size of the shower? 

...

...

...

"I`m a fucking idiot" he growled and pulled his shirt over his head on the way to the bathroom.

* * *

 Peter turned the water on and found the best temperature. He then looked at all the different bottles, picking them up one by one. Kraglin was right, many of them smelled sweet or flowery. One of them had the distinct scent like hubba bubba bubblegum and Peter decided that it would be as good as any. To his great disappointment it didn't make a lot of foam when it mixed with the water, but it did turn the water green. 

While the tub filled, he walked out back to the room and opened the dresser. There was a selection of three different shirts and pants in different colors there. After a bit of consideration, he chose a black shirt with what looked like a cartoony fanged white mouse and the matching pyjama bottoms. The material was soft and stretchy and he wondered briefly if the clothes were for the guests to keep. Probably not. 

He took his walkman and the change of clothes with him back into the bathroom and placed it on a towel, on a chair. He had perfected the art of listening to his walkman in the tub after he ruined his first headset one sad night in october. All precautions had to be taken. He chose the Awesome mix 2 and put it in. He undressed and put the clothes on the laundry compartment like he had been shown. He then pressing play on the walkman. "Southern Nights" played and he slid into the deliciously warm water and put the headphones on. Perfect.

He hummed with the chorus and closed his eyes. They didn't have bathtubs on the eclector, only showers. Absently he thought he could hear a thumping sound coming from the wall. It was probably just some other guests making noise and he didn't take off his headphones. If he did, he could risk getting them wet and after a while the sound disappeared. 

He laid in the bathtub with his music until his fingers got pruney and then carefully put away the headphones and washed his hair with the hubba bubba soap.

After drying off and changing into the hotel clothes he walked up to the window and looked out. It was dark outside but he could see some illuminated billboards and blinking signs on the roofs. He didn't know what any of them said, and he wondered if the aliens have a common writing system or if it was different on every planet. He couldn't learn all of them.

Peter got into the bed and turned the lights off, but he didn't feel like sleeping yet. 

There was a flat screen on the wall opposite the bed, a TV or _Holopad_ as he had learned it was called in space. He had seen what the buttons did on the Eclector when Tullk showed him how to use it. He was not allowed to use it alone, however, in the event that he should stumble onto something scary. Unfortunately, no one was here to stop him.

He turned it on and the room was illuminated with a faint blue light. The audio was almost completely off so he turned it up just a bit and tried to listen what the people on the screen was saying. 

It appeared to be some sort of horror movie about a creature that ate the souls of it`s victims, leaving them as emotionless husks. The last scary movie he had seen was "The Thing" which he had seen when the older kids at the orphanage rented it for halloween. It had freaked him out a bit but it was just a movie. Grandpa Max said monsters didn't exist, just people with overactive imaginations. Then again, he had not believed his mother about the angel, and that turned out to be pretty plausible. Peter had never really been a big fan of horror movies, but found himself enjoying this one quite a bit.

"We interrupt this documentary about "The mysterious mind sucker of Muhluu" with a news report."

...Documentary?

The screen flashed to a green skinned man in white clothes sitting at a news desk, "Good evening. I am your news anchor Oilin."

He quickly shut off the Holopad, making the room fall back into a silent darkness. Had he actually been watching space CNN and that _thing_ was actually a real monster?  

The room suddenly didn't seems so cosy anymore. He threw the covers off and tiptoed over to the door separating the two rooms. After knocking softly and getting no reply, he decided to open the door.

The room was just as dark as his own, and he snuck in, closing the door behind him. “Hello?” he whispered, he could see someone in the bed, as he moved closer he saw that it was Kraglin. His hair lacked its usual spiked shape and looked slightly damp. Peter squeezed his shirt slightly, was he really asleep? “Kraglin?” he whispered, moving closer to the bed. 

“Let him sleep.”

Peter jerked and looked towards the balcony where the voice had come from. He tiptoed away from the bed and towards the open door.

Yondu was sitting one of the chairs out on the balcony, he had a almost empty blue bottle of something on the table. He was only in his pyjama bottoms but he didn't seem to be cold. “You were told to knock.” the centaurian said and fixed him with a glare.

“I knocked.” Peter replied. True, he hadn't knocked very hard but he had done it.

“and then you came in anyway.” Yondu stated, taking a swig of the blue bottle, "So what kind of bullshit did you plan waking us up fer?" 

“I...just wanted to ask if a place called Muhluu was very far from here” Peter crossed his arms with a worried frown on his face, hoping the answer would be comforting.

"Why?" Yondu asked, turning to get a better look at him "It's far away, but why do you need ta know?"

“I dunno...just wanted to ask” Peter answered vaguely with an innocent look on his face. That creepy mind sucker was probably far away then and wouldn't steal his soul tonight.

"Why isn't Kraglin awake too?" he asked, looking into the room where the hraxian was slumbering. He thought adults liked to stay up late.

“He’s just _real_ tired is all” Yondu grinned smugly as if he had just told a joke, but Peter wasn't really sure what the joke was.

Peter found himself thinking about the streets they had walked through to get to this hotel, illuminated by the various streetlights and blinking billboards. "I thought that a different planet would look odd but it kinda looked just like earth" he admitted, had he not know that he was on a completely different planet this could easily have been St. Charles.

"You'll get used to things that remind you of home." the centaurian took a sip of his drink, "No matter where you are in the universe, most people are alike in one way or another."

Peter looked at the man's torso, Yondu had white markings that crisscrossed all over his back, shoulders and arms. Some were thin and barely noticeable, others were thick and stood out against the blue of his skin. "What are those white lines?"

"They're scars." was the only response he got.

Peter had a few scars, they were mostly small and had come from minor accidents like falling off his bike or cutting his finger. The captain had so many. "How did you get them?" 

“Mind yer own damn business, boy” Yondu growled, taking another gulp of his drink. The man looked irritated now and Peter decided that he didn't want to make the captain any more annoyed. Instead he asked Yondu about fighting. While he was still on the fence on whether or not the man had punched him in the face on purpose, surprisingly enough, he had enjoyed the lesson up until that point. So Peter asked how he made his arrow fly. 

"My tahlei" He pointed to the red implant on his head, "It gives me psionic abilities."

"You can read minds? What am i thinking?" Peter asked excited, thinking hard on the word "hopscotch" _._

"That's telepathic, dumbass" Yondu clarified and the boy looked a little bit disappointed, "It allows me to control my arrow with sound"

“Like when you whistle? Can you show me?" Peter asked under his breath, the magic arrow was what had saved him from the first alien he had met. It would be interesting to have a closer look on it. Yondu shook his head.

"Not now. Kraglin is very sensitive to high pitched noises and it would wake him up" Yondu replied dismissively. He could probably look at it later. From what he had gathered, Ravagers got into a lot of trouble and fights.

Would he ever have to fight? 

"Do you...think i'll get in many fights?" Peter asked, thinking back on how badly his training sessions had gone, "I'm not very good at it." 

Yondu cackled, seeming to be genuinely amused “You ain't doing so bad. You didn't cry that _one time_  you fell on your face"

"You're a jerk" Peter mumbled embarrassed, crossing his arms again and scowling at the centaurian. 

“Yea? And you ain't no baby, go sleep in your own room” Yondu made a shooing motion with his hand as he took another swig of the bottle. He was definitely not a baby, and he was not scared to sleep alone neither. 

Peter tiptoed back through the room towards the door, making sure to be quiet. Slipping back into his own dark room, he closed the door carefully and jumped onto the spacious mattress, burrowing under the duvet.

Tomorrow he would get to explore a new planet in daylight, and hopefully...the mind sucker of Muhluu was very  _very_ far away.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Chapter title is from "Hangin` Tough" by New Kids on The Block  
> Hey guys...That line at the shop ain't no joke, am i right?....*Cricket sounds*  
> I didn't even realise how long it's been until i saw the date on the previous update, i am so sorry  
> The reason this takes so long is that i honestly feel whatever i write is not good enough and i keep deleting it over and over.  
> A lot of writers here are so good and they seem to do it so quick. Share your magic with me, please.  
> Hope you all have a lovely december!  
> I’m going to be a bit busy so the next chapter might take a while but it will come.  
> -mindless


	6. Streets of Gold

When Yondu opened his eyes, he was lying turned towards the balcony, the curtains were lazily dancing in the small breeze. The soft light outside told him that it was still fairly early and the birds were singing their dawn chorus. It was going to be another warm day. 

He still felt a slight buzz from the drinking he had done last night, after he had told Peter to go back to bed, he had finished off the rest of the booze in the refrigerator. It had felt so very relaxing to just sit on the balcony with a drink in his hand and not have to think about _anything_. The ship was in good hands, the crew were off duty and soon they would know just what to do with Peter. 

Usually, Kraglin would be snuggled up to him and sucking up his body heat like a damned leech, but he must have turned away in his sleep. Yondu stretched and  used his right hand to search the spot beside himself to pull the hraxian closer, but was surprised to not feel anything but cold sheets. He sat up then, realising that the spot beside him was empty.

Ever since the little terran squatter had taken over Kraglin`s room, they had slept in the same bed every night. Now it felt just a little bit odd not to have his lover close when he woke up. They were becoming almost disgustingly domestic.

The bathroom door opened with a quiet click and a fully dressed Kraglin stepped out. He looked surprised to see Yondu already awake.

"Well...ya sure were good company last night" the centaurian said jokingly, "passing out even before the brat."

"Yea..."Kraglin yawned, before he pushed a button that revealed the small refrigerator in the wall and browsed through the selection of complimentary snacks. "I dunno if it was all the work before handing the ship over to the mechanics, or tha` mini heart attack I had when we was fucking in the shower and I thought you were gonna slip and drop me, but I was _out_." The hraxian eventually decided on a fruit and an energy drink, and sat down on the edge of the bed next to Yondu.

Yondu cackled, Kraglin certainly hadn't been complaining last night. "Where are ya headed?" he asked, because it certainly looked like the man was going somewhere. He had his knife harness strapped to his chest, and a gun fastened next to the hip pouch on his belt. 

"Her _highness_  has asked to meet us in some park." Kraglin revealed and downed the energy drink in a few big gulps, "I saw the message when i woke up and though i'd save you the hassle. It shouldn't take very long."

"Your sacrifice is appreciated." Yondu didn't care which one of them who met with her, if his first mate wanted to volunteer he certainly wasn't going to stop him. Usually,  high society folks would always use a proxy when they made deals with people like the ravagers, which was fine. Yondu had very little patience for their snobbish attitudes anyway. 

The hraxian grinned and gave the centaurian a quick peck on the lips before he stood up. He then pulled the poncho over his head, hiding his weapons under the fabric and walked towards the door.

"Make sure the kid eats something, yea?" Kraglin added with a wink as he took a bite of his fruit and exited the hotel room. 

Oh. Kraglin had left him alone with Peter. _Super..._

Yondu sighed and fell back onto the bed, he supposed that it was _probably_ for the best that Kraglin didn't bring the kid to a _business_ meeting. Peter had an annoying knack for staring at anything that didn't look like himself. Yesterday he had talked about one of the Lion-People he had seen but had called it a "thundercat", loudly enough for said thundercat to hear. Luckily, it didn't seem to mind too much.

As if summoned, there was a knock on the door separating the two rooms. Yondu groaned, his plan to sleep a little bit longer was foiled. After a pause, there was a new louder series of knocks, this time in what seemed to be some sort of melody. Yondu growled as he sat up in the bed, "What?" 

The door opened slightly and a ginger haired head appeared, his hair sticking out at all angles. The boy was dressed in his terran clothes again and very  uncharacteristically beamed at the centaurian. "Are you guys up?" 

"Obviously" Yondu replied and Peter opened the door fully and invited himself in. Peter searched around the room and opened the bathroom door slightly looking for something, “Where`s Kraglin?”

“Nevermind that.” Yondu reluctantly got up and into the bathroom to dress himself, closing the door.

"Are we eating breakfast soon?" Peter asked, loud enough for the centaurian to hear him through the door. "Eat away, kid" he replied, remembering what Kraglin had asked him to do. He found that slightly insulting too. He knew, of course, that the kid would need to eat. He had babysat Stakar`s triplets when they were about Peters age, which was exactly why he didn't want to do that all over again.

“There's nothing to eat here though...” Peter whined. This kid was completely _helpless_ , wasn't he? Yondu dressed hurriedly and exited the bathroom to just show him the refrigerator hidden in the wall. The boy made a noise of wonder and picked out a pastry and a drink. "Everything is so Star Trek around here." 

Yondu stopped himself from asking what "Star Trek" was and took the now crumpled sleepwear he had left on the bathroom floor and haphazardly stuffed them in his bag. The fabric was of a good quality and the hotel wouldnt know it was missing until after they were long gone. He also nicked some of the products in the bathroom, scented soaps was not something he usually spend money on himself so now was the time to stock up. 

"Are you sure we're allowed to keep those?" Peter asked skeptically between bites as he watched the centaurian put the things in his bag. 

"Oh yeah. For sure" Yondu replied with a grin, "If you want, you can take some things from your room too."

The boy thought about it before he ran back into his own hotel room. There was a small swoosh as Peter opened his own refrigerator then the sound of the dresser being opened. He came back with the black sleepwear set he had slept in, a blue set with stars on them and snacks from his fridge. 

After putting the things away and dressing properly they walked down to the lobby and checked out. The woman at the front desk gave them a small wave and said "Walk good" pleasantly as they left.

Puzzled by her words, Peter asked Yondu if he was walking wrong. The only reply he got was a sigh. He couldn't really blame Peter for the slightly mistranslated things he heard. The translator had to work with what Peter already knew, and if it couldn't make proper sense of it then he would obviously hear confusing things. "It means have a nice day." he offered.

Stakar had decided that they would meet in an old haunt two towns over from Ketki, so they would have to travel on the Irma Light Rail. It shouldn't take very long and they could just wander around until the ravager commander arrived. 

Peter walked around and his head was whipping around in every direction as he tried to take in everything now that the sun was up. All the shops that had been closed when they walked here last night were open. "That is _so_ bitchin`" he said excitedly as he stopped to stare at an A'askvarii who was putting out her wares for the day. The A'askvarian thought Peter was talking about her selection of drinks and asked him if he would like to purchase some juice, gesturing to her many different bottles with her tentacles. Yondu pulled Peter away with a mumbled "we're late."

When they were out of the A'askvarians hearing range he gripped Peters arm and said seriously "I know yer excited, but _try_ to control yerself. I don't want to end up in a fight and alert the corps just `cause yer a rude little shit."

"I didn't mean to be..." Peter apologised a little startled at Yondu`s tone, "but all of this is just so...weird." 

Yondu let go of his arm with a sigh, he knew that terrans was unfamiliar with the universe, but he really needed to show more tact. On the Eclector it  wasn't really an issue, his crew knew not to touch the boy. If Peter said the wrong thing to the wrong person here and no one was around to help him, it could get bad. "Try  _pretending_ that what you see is normal, yeah?"

The boy contemplated this before he nodded, "I`ll try."

Yondu assumed that was the best the boy could do, and continued on their way to the light rail station. Even if he had told Peter to not be rude and stare at the alien species they met, he still had an endless barrage of questions. Yondu could not for the life of him understand how the boy still had breath left. Luckily it seemed that he had ran out of steam, for _now_. He managed to get the tickets and get the boy on the light rail before it started moving. 

They sat down across from a olive skinned woman with pale blue hair and what Yondu assumed was her daughter. The woman gave them a courteous smile before she pulled a book from her purse, the girl similarly pulled out a magazine and started reading.

He noticed that Peter was sneaking short glances at the girl. She was cute looking with her curled hair and big eyes, so Yondu was not surprised that the kid was staring. From what he knew, Peter was nearing or in the beginning of puberty, he was bound to start taking an interest in people he found attractive.  The girl looked up from her magazine, having noticed him staring. Peter quickly looked away, trying hard not to let his cheeks turn red in the embarrassment of being caught. After a little while, Peter took another peek at the girl. The girl captured his gaze again and let out a melodious giggle, showing a row of pearly white shark like teeth.  

Peter quickly looked out of the window feigning disinterest, but was actually looking at the girl`s reflection in the glass. Yondu rolled his eyes and muttered "kids" under his breath. 

The mother and daughter left after a few stops and they sat in silence for a while until Peter said, "Her teeth was even sharper than Kraglins..." 

"In the grand scheme of things, Kraglins teeth aren't _that_ sharp." Yondu murmured, and Peter looked surprised to hear this. Sure, the hraxian was perfectly capable of taking a sizeable chomp of anyone that got too close, but Yondu had seen other alien species bite entire limbs clean off. "She was cute though, right?" 

"I dunno" Peter mumbled, pretending that he wasn't all that interested, "maybe...a little." 

When they finally got to their destination, Yondu told Peter that before they met with Stakar they could take a look around first. The station they exited was not very big but it lead out into a huge bazaar. Yondu told Peter to stay close and not mess around because if he got lost. He would stay lost.

“Bitchin`” Peter mumbled when he saw another Lion person at one of the stalls, selling odd looking fruits in all shapes and sizes and yelling out his selection and prices to the people passing by. 

The bazaar seemed endless, they walked past so many different stalls and little shops but there was always more ahead. Some places a street performer or a group of them played music or danced. It almost felt like going in circles because of how everything blended into each other, but the centaurian really enjoyed crowded and busy places like this. He snatched a purple fruit from a vendor and kept walking, always making sure that the boy was still close. He took a bite of his fruit and savored the sweet taste, he should have eaten breakfast. 

“you didn't buy anything…” Peter suddenly stated accusingly.

Yondu wiped the juice from his lip with his sleeve, “ No. I did not.”

“You _stole_ it?” Peter gasped, holding his hands in front of his mouth in shock. Yondu just gave him an odd look and threw the half eaten fruit nonchalantly into an alley.

“Mom said it's wrong to steal stuff” Peter whispered to the centaurian matter of factly, crossing his arms. Yondu blinked, he then bent down to the boy`s level and pointed to himself, “ _Not_ your mom, kid." Yondu pulled him to the side and into a narrow alley so people couldn't listen in on their conversation.

"Don't you know what Ravagers do?” Yondu was pretty sure he had been told. After Peter had gotten the translator implanted, he had asked thousands of questions to anyone willing to answer them. He knew what ravagers did for a living. Peter had called them  _space pirates_ more than once so he must at least be familiar with the concept.

“Well yeah...but I thought he meant like boarding other spaceships, robbing rich people and stuff...not stealing fruit from a market stall.” He sounded disappointed, oddly enough.

“Ravagers steal from everybody.” Yondu said and crossed his arms, looking down at Peter. It wasn't completely true, Yondu had never stolen from people like beggars or people who clearly wasn't doing so well for themselves. There was no real merit in picking low hanging fruit.

"Everybody?" Peter asked sceptically. 

There was a tense silence after that, the two of them just scowling at each other. Peter looked back out and into the bazaar, "Fine...but can I _please_ get some money so I can _buy_   a bun or something?" 

“I ain't never, and I mean _never_ gonna give you _any_ money unless you earn them.” Yondu growled with finality.

Peter looked at Yondu like he just said the dumbest thing he had ever heard, “I’m not allowed to work or earn money. I`m _nine._ ”

“Anything you want...be it a bun, a toy or  _whatever._ You have to earn it” Yondu grinned, "or go without."

"How?" Peter raised an eyebrow.

"Like most ravagers do, boy. Stealing."

* * *

The Kymellian woman stood out from the crowd, her clothes were far too expensive looking for a stroll in a public park. If she was trying to blend in with the other people here, she was not doing a very good job. The bodyguard by her side was not making them any less noticeable either.

"Well well...Don't ya look _inconspicuous_ , Umir." Kraglin greeted the mare as he walked up to her, the bodyguard eyed him coldly. Probably holding himself back from telling him to address her with her proper title.

'Being facetious doesn't suit you.' she said curtly in a refined voice, "and I see no reason to dress like a commoner. If I were to take a walk in a park what would be odd about it?"

"Nothin`. Unless you were spotted with a ravager." Kraglin stated sarcastically, "so why you chose somethin` so public like a park is beyond me."

The woman gestured to a park bench and he followed her lead. "I would have been happy just sending a regular message about this, but I believe my dear husband is spying on all of my electronic communication." 

She sat down on one end of the bench and pushed her mane out of her eyes. The grand duchess took out a long pipe and a pouch and began putting crushed flower petals into it. "It is so _sad_ that he doesn't trust me...I mean, he is right not to, but it still hurts."

Kraglin smiled. Umir and her new husband had apparently been the talk of the entirety of Kymellia III. Umir was an actress and had for years been the mistress of a grand duke on the planet. When the first wife of the grand duke had died in mysterious circumstances, all eyes had been directed at Umir, but no evidence had suggested foul play. 

"Did you do it?" Kraglin asked casually, he didn't believe she would actually admit to anything. It was her reaction he wanted to see.

“Malicious rumors” she blew the pink smoke to the side, but with a small secretive smile on her lips. The hraxian already decided that this woman had to be bad at card games, he already knew she was lying.

She removed a catalogue from her purse and skimmed through the pages until she found the page she was looking for. She turned the page towards Kraglin and pointed to a picture of a painting before handing the catalogue over to him. 

"What i want you to get is this Merelliama painting. I lost it to some baron at an auction." The painting in the catalogue seemed to be a first person view of a pretty lavish breakfast table. "It was the only thing i had my eye on in the entire catalogue. It is a _masterpiece._ " she said wistfully, "It is the only painting where the painter left a reflection of herself, there in the glass" She pointed to a drinking glass on the table and the faint outline of a face reflected on its surface.

"If you say so..."  Kraglin replied airily, "you... want a painting of breakfast?"

"It's not about breakfast." the kymellian snorted, as if the very idea was preposterous. "You need to see the _deeper meaning_ in the painting"

"Deeper than breakfast?" He said this with a very serious look on his face. He was joking, but he knew saying that would annoy an art _connoisseur_ like her.

“Luckily, it is not your job to _get_  it” Umir responded haughtily and narrowed her eyes in annoyance, "are you interested or not?"

Kraglin thought about it. A baron would certainly have enough money to buy a good security system and guards so there was a risk, but that was pretty normal. For the right price any ravager would do it. “I'm sure the captain will find it very interesting, but what are you offering for our _assistance_ in this?" 

"I'll pay 12 million for the painting alone" She said in a businesslike manner, she then put on a slightly cruel smile and added "and should you find any more of the baron'sbeloved treasures...I would be _ecstatic_ to pay for them too.” 

Kraglin was surprised to say the least. That was an impressive sum for something that was, in his opinion, quite frivolous. The woman gave Kraglin an envelope with the details and bid him farewell. She dissapeared into the park with her bodyguard by her side.

Kraglin spent a little time just looking through the catalogue at the other things that had been at the auction. He wasn't going to pretend he knew much about art, he knew when he liked something, and when he didn't. Many of the artworks fell in the latter category. Hell, some of the doodles Peter had drawn were better looking.

“Bullshit” he muttered under his breath as he looked at a painting of differently colored squares and triangles selling for 500.000 fucking units, " 'm in the wrong line of work, clearly."

He stood up and rolled the catalogue together, putting it in his hip pouch hidden by the poncho. He should start heading over to the meeting place.

* * *

When Peter thought about robbers, he mostly visualised some guy in a face mask, dragging someone into an alley and forcing them to hand over their valuables at gunpoint. That was scary and he did not want to hurt anyone like that. He told this to Yondu, who listened with slight amusement on his face.

"In pickpocketing you don't pull a knife or a gun on the person. You wanna get the thing and leave before they notice that their stuff is gone. That way nobody can point you out and turn ya in." Yondu explained, "You take it and get away. Easy."

"I don't think I can do that" Peter admitted, "I wouldn't be good at it."

“I ain`t expecting you to be able to rob a Nova Corp Denarian on the first day...but you need to practice." The centaurian surveyed the marketplace from within the alley, looking from person to person until he found what he was looking for. 

"Tell you what. I'm gonna learn you a pickpocketing technique for two." Yondu pointed to the back of a man looking over the various baked goods of a seller, " Go up to him and ask him for the way to the temple. Then walk the way he tells you to go."

"Okay...I can do that." Peter felt nervous as he walked towards the man to do as he was told. The man had just paid for his wares and put them in his shopping bag, Peter followed him away from the booth and when he got close enough he pulled once on the man's sleeve. The man turned to him with a smile, "can i help you?"

"Excuse me. Do you know the way to..uh..the temple?" Peter asked and smiled nervously, clasping his hands in front of his stomach. The man blinked at him for a moment and furrowed his brows in though before he answered.  "Um...Yes..it's down that street over there."  He pointed with the hand not holding the bag, "and after that you..oof" Somebody had bumped into him. It was Yondu, and Peter fought the urge to look at him. "`cuse me" the centaurian mumbled and disappeared into the crowd again. 

"Uh...like i was saying down the street and to the right and then just straight ahead. You can`t miss it!" the man then smiled and gave Peter a small bow before he continued on his way.

"Thanks mister" Peter mumbled. He walked back the way he came until he saw Yondu again, and followed him back into the alley. 

"Good job. I mean... _I_ would have realised you were up to something" Yondu threw something to him and he barely caught it," but what can i _really_ expect from you?" It was a simple black pouch, closed by a leather ribbon. "Usually, profits are split...but since this is yer first time. You can have it."

Peter emptied the pouch into his palm. “Wow!" Peter looked down at the little rectangular iron plates in his hand, "what is it?”

“These” Yondu pointed to the metal plates, “are the most common form of money in _this_ galaxy. You now have 26 units to yer name, kid.”  

"How did you do it?" Peter asked, putting the units back in the pouch. "without him noticing, i mean?"

Yondu chuckled, "He was too distracted by you. Do you think you can do what I did?" 

"I...maybe" Peter replied hesitantly, "but what if i do get caught? Can I try something easier?"

"Easier?"

"What about Yondu's arrow?" a new voice interjected, startling both Yondu and Peter. Kraglin had snuck up on them and was standing a few meters down the alley, twirling the yaka arrow between his fingers. Yondu's head snapped down to look at his now empty holster before he whistled and the arrow shot out of the hraxians hands and back to its master, "Ya wanna get got, ya idjit?"

Peter giggled "he got you", clearly very amused that Yondu had just gotten pickpocketed while he was trying to teach it away.

Kraglin just chuckled, and closed the distance between them. "What are y'all doin`?"

“ _Teaching_...Now lookin’ at all the stuff on this market” Yondu addressed the nine year old, “what would _you_ like to steal?”

Peter thought about it, poking his head out into the street and surveying the place. Eventually he pointed to a candy stall, there was a bowl of candy galaxy marbles in the front. The candy orbs were in multiple colours and had swirls of glitter in them. They looked slightly poisonous. 

“Candy? You wanna steal candy?”, Yondu thought about it before he shrugged and pulled Peter back into an alley, “All right. Try taking some candies without being caught. We`ll wait here.” 

Peter seemed to give himself a little silent pep talk before straightened his back marched towards the place.

"What did her _highness_ want this time?" Yondu leaned up against the alleyway wall, directing his attention to Kraglin, "another ugly vase?"

“A while back she lost an auction bid on a painting to some baron. _”_ Kraglin dragged out the last word, to show his disdain for it and pulled out the catalogue he had received.  "Page 58." he threw it to the centauarian and continued to keep an eye on Peter.

Yondu found the painting and gave Kraglin a look that said _Seriously?_ “she wants some food painting?” Yondu flipped the rest of the way through the catalogue, stopping for a second to look at a little gem decorated flerken statuette before putting away the magazine in his bag.

“She was pretty steamed that she lost the painting to this guy so she also wanted us to raid this guys art collection while we were at it" Kraglin could barely see in Peter from their location now, wondering if he was making any progress at all. 

"Oooo....busted.." Kraglin remarked, the store owner had seen what Peter was trying to do and grabbed a hold of him. He was clearly reprimanding him and Yondu shared a look with his first mate before he gestured for Kraglin to go resolve the situation.

The hraxian pushed off the wall and walked back into to the bazaar, “Peter? Where did you...Peter! Where have you been!?”

Yondu couldn't hear the exchange between the hraxian and the store owner but saw that Kraglin put on a shocked face and smacked Peter in the back of his head. He apologized profusely for Peter`s behavior and asked for the store owners forgiveness. 

There was a small melody from his communication unit and when he checked the display it only said, "I`m here." Stakar was finally at the old eatery, but Yondu wanted to have a word with him in private before he introduced him to Peter.  

The boy looked very defeated when he and Kraglin walked up to Yondu in the alley. “Welp...you have to start off somewhere, boy.” Yondu shrugged, it wasn't all that surprising that he had failed. The vendors dealt with thieves every day, kids like Peter was not exactly hard to spot if they were up to something.

Peter scowled sourly up at a very unapologetic looking hraxian, “Did you _really_ have to smack the back of my head so hard?” 

“It made the act so much more believable though” Kraglin winked and ruffled Peters hair.

"I didn't get anything..."Peter sulked, and kicked a pebble halfheartedly.

Yondu hummed and snapped his fingers and held out his palm. Kraglin wordlessly obeyed and pulled out some candy orbs in different colors from under his poncho, placing them in the captain's hand.

“But...how did you?” Peter looked shocked at the candies that he had wanted to take, now resting in Yondu's hand and back to Kraglin, "...he was looking at us the _whole_ time." 

Kraglin shrugged, taking out a black and red lollipop from under his poncho and placing it in his mouth.

“You stole more stuff?” the terran ask in disbelief, “...I didn't know they made lollipops in space.”

Kraglin just looked oddly at him, “the hell is a law-li-pop?”

"Peter...I will give ya these cute little candies if you can steal _anything_ at this marked during the next hour.” He was basically just creating busy work for the boy. It shouldn't be too hard for him to nick _something_. That way he had time to talk to Stakar without worrying about Peter. “Krags will be supervising you”

“Yessir” Kraglin replied and crushed the lollipop between teeth, spitting out the little stick that was left.

Yondu shook his head and started walking towards the tavern where Stakar would be waiting for him. Hopefully the little dumbass would not be too troublesome for his mate to handle.

* * *

Peter was having fun with this game. Stealing from people were not really a nice thing to do, his mother had told him so, but there was something so undeniably thrilling about it. 

He did what Yondu had told him. Not actually putting his hand in anyone's pockets, but picking things that looked easy to grab. Things in open purses, things that were sticking out or about to fall out of bags. He then got away from the people he had stolen from before he put the small things he had taken in his own pockets, or if it were bigger, in his backpack. 

After he had stolen some sort of vegetable and slipped away, he looked around for Kraglin. He had said that he would be close and watching him, but at the moment he couldn't see him anywhere. He looked around again, trying to find the man but only seeing alien faces.

Peter felt his heart going faster, where was he? He didn't know anyone else here, what if Kraglin was lost? What if...Kraglin had left him.

There was a tightening of his throat and a short intake of breath, frantically searching his surroundings for _any_ familiar face. 

Peter sniffled quietly, blinking back the tears threatening to spill from his eyes. He couldn't see him at all. Peter hugged himself, trying to starve off the small shivers he felt in his chest, but they were becoming bigger and bigger. It felt like it was hard to breathe. All the aliens around him didn't pay him as much as a glance, too busy to care about a sniveling child. 

He was alone, they had left him here, and he was probably going to get grilled and eaten and no one in the entire _universe_ would care.

There were tears running down his cheeks now, he had tried to keep them in but it didn't help. He couldn't stop it anymore. He just broke down. The sobs he had tried to stop punched through, ripping through his body, muscles and guts.

A hand touched his back, Peter twisted around with a gasp, and wasted no time burying himself in the arms of a very surprised Kraglin.

“Wha..? Did you hurt yerself?”

Peter didn't reply, he just continued clinging to the hraxian as if he was about to fall into nothingness. Kraglin lifted the sobbing boy up with ease and navigated them over to a wall. He sat down so Peter was in is lap and awkwardly patted the boy on his back a few times as he sobbed into Kraglin`s shoulder. He kept one arm around the boy and used the other to stroke the back of the boy's wild hair.

He held him in silence for a while, before he asked him again what had happened. Peter eventually stopped shaking, sniffled and mumbled "nothing" into the man's neck but kept clutching at his poncho. 

“It ain't _nothin’_ ” Kraglin insisted, and made Peter look at him. Fat tear streaks was running down the boys chin, and he sniffed through his clogged up nose, looking utterly miserable. The hraxian wiped some of the moisture away from the boys cheek with his gloved hand. "What happened?"

Peter sniffed again, sitting back a little and putting his hands in his lap “I thought...that you left me.”

Kraglin furrowed his brow,  “Would i do that?” he asked, clearly expecting an answer.

“I...I don't know, okay.” Peter sniffed, wiping his nose on his shirt sleeve, "Yondu thinks i'm annoying and maybe you think so too...so maybe you wanted me to get lost." The last word came out as a whine and Peter almost started crying again, but then Kraglin pinched his nose. Peter squeaked and held his slightly aching nose, looking confused at the ravager. 

"The answer is no, ya dill" the hraxian deadpanned. 

Peter blinked a few times, processing everything. Now that he had calmed down a little he wasn't quite sure why he had been so upset. He hadn't really believed that they had left him, had he? They had protected him and taught him how to be a ravager. They wouldn't have done that if they didn't care about him, right?

Peter rested his head on Kraglin`s shoulder again and let out a tired sigh, there was a lot of thoughts in his head right now. "Don't tell Yondu I cried..." he whispered, Kraglin chuckled and hummed in confirmation. 

“Is everything alright?” a unfamiliar voice asked.

Kraglin looked startled up and into the face of a Nova Officer, the young man seemed concerned and gave them a warming smile. “I..uh...saw him crying and was about to head over when i saw you pick him up." he explained and scratched the back of his head in an almost shy gesture, "Did he get hurt or sumthin`? ”

“We just lost each other...and he got a bit scared is all.” Kraglin answered the man pleasantly, absently letting a hand stroke down the back of Peter`s head.  Kraglin slid the hand that wasn't holding Peter under the poncho, reaching for his gun, “He has never been on Irma before…I think it overwhelmed him a bit.”

The young Nova Officer gave Peter a warm smile, “No worries, kid. If you ever get lost and can’t find your dad, just look for one of us. We are here to help.”

Peter remained quiet and clung tighter to Kraglin. He knew the Nova people were like the police on earth and that ravagers were outlaws. However, The officer didn't seem to know that they were ravagers so he decided to not say anything. Hoping the man would go away.

“It’s different on Irma, I suppose.” the corpsman continued, clearly not about to leave just like that. “but the people in these uniforms are just like the sentinels of Hrax. So if there is any trouble at all, please don’t hesitate to ask.” Peter had no idea what a "sentinel" was, but nodded as if he did. 

“Forgive him. He's shy” Kraglin chuckled, “so... i heard that Irma is joining the empire. Must be a pretty busy time for the corps?” He said this in the hope that the corpsman would realise that he was too busy to chat with a hraxian trying to comfort its child, and leave them alone. 

"Yap. There's a lot of work to be done" the man put his hands on his hips but didn't go anywhere, "So...whatcha doing on Irma? Kinda long from home, innit?"

"We`re visiting my uncle" Kraglin answered with what he hoped was a friendly smile, "he's a trader, ya see."

"Neat. That's always nice." Oh gods. This guy just couldn't take a hint could he? Kraglin was not about to panic just yet, if push came to shove he could just shoot the fucker in the leg and run off. Peter wasn't all that heavy and wouldn't slow him down much.

“Say...Do i know you?” the corpsman suddenly asked, scratching the back of his head in contemplation, “It's just, like, something oddly familiar about you.”

Kraglin knew exactly why the man felt this way. He was, after all, wanted for crimes against the empire. Not that he was too worried about him realising right now where he knew him from. Nevertheless he made a face as if he too was trying to remember, “have you visited Hrax before, maybe?”

The man was about to answer when Peter interrupted with a sulky, "I'm hungry, papa!"

There was a beat where Kraglin just looked surprised at the interruption before he said “I'm so sorry, puppy. We'll go real soon, `kay? ” as if he had forgotten.

"Oh! I didn't mean to keep you." the officer apologized before shooting them another friendly grin, "be safe you two!" The man ran to his partner who had been waiting by a food stall and the two continued on their patrol down the street.

Kraglin let out a sigh of relief and shook his head. " _Papa_ , huh? Slick, kid" he hadn't thought that Peter would join the little charade at all.

Peter stuck his tongue out, "I really am hungry"

"Whatever...I suppose Yondu have had enough time with Stakar now." Kraglin stood up, still holding Peter and walked in the direction the eatery lay in. "You are way too big to be carried like this." Kraglin mumbled. Peter couldn't remember the last time he had been carried when he thought about it. It felt kinda nice. 

"The Nova guys aren't _bad_ are they?" Peter asked, still holding tightly on to Kraglin as the man walked them through the crowds in the market.

"The Nova Corps has done plenty a` good for many planets.” Kraglin said firmly, they finally were out of the bazaar and in a side street when Kraglin put him down again. “It's just that people like me don't see eye to eye with `em." He explained, dusting off his poncho and walked down the alley.

"Because you're ravagers?" Peter asked, walking briskly to keep up with the tall man's steps, “He seemed nice, though.”

“I'm _sure_ he is.” Kraglin replied.

* * *

When Yondu entered the eatery he was saw a few other members of Stakars crew, busy talking among themselves. He was directed to one of the more private booths in the back by the bartender and was welcomed by the sight of Stakar and his first mate Ivo.

“Stakar." Yondu tapped his chest with his fist and the Ravager leader gestured for him to take a seat. Yondu then greeted the older man smoking a pipe next to the archurian, "Ivo...you know smoking that shit ain't good for ya.” The white haired hraxian fixed him with an a glare before he coolly said "When i need your opinion, I'll ask for it, shitstick."  

Stakar ignored the exchange and seemed to examine the space behind Yondu, "Did you lose the kid on the way here?” 

Yondu told them about their impromptu pickpocketing lessons and the plan to keep the boy away so that they had the chance to talk first. Stakar seemed surprised that they already had started with that, as the boy was so new to everything. 

"Yer kids started earlier than him, didn't they?" Yondu pointed out. The "terrible three" were lethal, figuratively speaking, when they worked together. They could take off with anything that wasn't nailed down in record time if they had a proper distraction in place.

"You making the boy watch him still?" Ivo asked, referring to Kraglin. 

"He ain't doing a half bad job about it neither" Yondu stated and grinned at the elder man, "he is certainly better at this than me."

"That doesn't surprise me" Ivo drawled.

When Yondu ordered Kraglin to look after the boy, he had not really anticipated that the hraxian would take his role as caretaker so seriously. Yet the man had spent most of his time with the brat and even started _educating_ the boy on the various aspects of being a ravager. Yondu wasn't sure if this was a good thing, as Peter could be leaving as soon as today based on what Stakar and his crew had found out about the _alleged_ father.

If Yondu was a gambling man, and he was, he would dare say that Kraglin would be sad to see the kid go.

"Now...You said that you had dirt on this guy, yeah?" Yondu didn't know how long he had so decided to jump into it as quickly as possible. 

"Definitely, "Stakar sighed and took a swig of his brew, “The plan was pretty straight forward. Get to one of Ego`s kids and bribe them to spy for us.”

Another ravager captain named Grenn had, like a few others, recently gotten a request from Ego. This time the request had been to get a young girl from Contaxia, and Grenn had wisely decided to report it to her commander. 

It was about two weeks ago when Stakar steered the Starhawk towards Contraxia to find number twenty seven on Ego`s ever growing list of children. A twelve year old girl named Yaoung, living in the outskirts of one of the big cities with her aunt and cousin.

She was sitting outside her family home, her maroon hair being arranged in a complex braid decorated with glass beads and flowers by her cousin, a teenager named Anoka, when Stakar and his entourage stopped in front of them. Anoka seemed worried and put a protective arm around the younger girl and called out for her mother.

The aunt, a middle aged quite buxom woman, had very reluctantly invited Stakar in, when he assured her he was not there to cause harm and on the condition that the three men accompanying him stayed outside. Not having any reason to deny her this request, Stakar agreed and entered their small home.

The woman puttered around in her small kitchenette for a minute or two while Stakar, Yaoung and Anoka was left to sit at the dinner table. The youngest girl eyed the ravager emblem on the arcturians breast pocket and bit her lip thoughtfully, her cousin on the other hand sat with a distrustful and haughty look in her violet eyes.

After accepting a cup of herbal tea from the nervous woman, Stakar asked Yaoung what she knew about her father.

She couldn't really say much, just snootily replied that she didn't care. He was just some guy anyway, a client. The aunt had let out a nervous laugh and explained that Ego really was just like any other client.  Yaoung's mother had been confused by the unexpected pregnancy, but assumed that her birth control had just failed. She had decided to carry the child to term, working as an escort made "fatherless" children like Yaoung quite common.

Everything had seemed fine until just a few years ago, when woman had suddenly fallen ill. It had struck her as odd that someone so young and generally healthy had gotten such an incredibly aggressive cancer in her lungs.

This matched what Stakar had heard about the mothers of the other children he had traced. The mothers would fall ill, seemingly randomly, and Ego _knew_ when it happened.

Stakar explained the situation, and his suspicions against Ego. He then asked Yaoung if she wanted to find out who her father was and help them get to the bottom of this mysterious behaviour. He offered to pay her a generous sum to come with them and meet with Ego, report everything he did and said, and if it possible speak with the other children he had with him.

The aunt and her cousin warned her that it could be a trap or dangerous. They were scared for her quite understandably, there was a possibility that Ego was dangerous. Yaoung thought about it for a while and finally accepted on the condition that she was paid half up front, and if she wanted to leave at _any_ time, they would bring her back home.

The aunt had not been very happy about her choice but said that she trusted her to use her common sense and leave if she felt threatened. Anoka had begged to come with her, but had eventually been talked out of it. 

The ravager captain that had originally been contacted took over from there, bringing Yaoung to the planet like she had promised Ego.

From what Grenn could tell, there wasn't anything _overly_ suspicious about the man, but he had struck her as _odd_. He had welcomed the girl warmly but seemed to want to get rid of Grenn as soon as possible. She had complied and hoped that everything would go well for the young girl. Per their agreement, she would stay close to the planet, but not so close that Ego would know they were there. 

“Yesterday when we talked to her, she said that Ego had become increasingly _agitated_ when she was unable to use the powers he had tried to teach her.”

“and what _powers_ would tha` be?” from what Yondu could tell there was nothing particularly _remarkable_ about Peter. Except for his ability to be exceptionally annoying.

“She said something about _the light_ and creating things." Stakar made a frustrated hand motion, "She had a hard time explaining it all. Anyway, our conversation was interrupted by Ego who said that he wanted her to try harder." 

Not inherently evil, Yondu had to admit. But why did it all feel so  _wrong?_  

“Could we ask the girl to let us talk to one of the other children?” Yondu asked, surely the children that had been there longer than Yaoung had a better explanation. Ego wouldn't hurt them if he wanted to pass on his powers to them, right? 

“Unfortunately not” Stakar said and sat back in his seat, looking down at his hands. 

“and why the flark not?” Yondu was beginning to get pretty tired of the man being evasive, what could be so bad that they couldn't tell him? Stakar looked almost...ashamed. "Try calling her up right now."

"That's the thing ...We can't." Ivo took a big swig and emptied his glass, he then looked at Yondu with regret, “she's dead.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Bo!  
> I ain't dead.  
> I know..i haven't updated since december and this chapter isn't even all that long, but I have been away from from my computer for months and writing on my phone is a nightmare!  
> Chapter title comes from “Streets of Gold" sung by Ruth Pointer in the Disney movie "Oliver and Company".  
> It is the only song that i doubt would play on the radio in 1988 and would not be on any of the Totally Bitchin` cassettes... but it fits so good for this chapter.  
> The scene where Ego tells Peter of all the women he's been with is mostly played for laughs, but it's sad to think about all of Peters half siblings.  
> Considering what date it is, I feel obligated to wish everyone a happy 420 XD


	7. Pour Some Sugar on Me

“He killed the girl?” Yondu asked in disbelief, looking between the ravager leader and the former captain next to him. “His child?" he clarified, still unable to comprehend _that_ was what he just heard, "That he paid  _a fuckton of units_ to have brought to him? Just killed her?”

“Yes." Stakar confirmed, leaning back into the seat with his arms crossed "She's dead."

They sat in silence for a while, Yondu visibly troubled by this new information. When Stakar said he was suspicious of Ego, a lot of different scenarios had wormed their way into his head. Whatever he had expected, some weird cult shit, sexual trafficking, or an actual father who cared for his children. Murder had surprisingly not been one of them. What would be the point? Was the bastard eating them?

"A tracker we planted on her registered a sharp rise in her heartbeat, as if she was panicking, and then it just stopped.” Stakar supplied. It was very common within the Ravager ranks to put trackers on people during missions. If the situation was dangerous it was better to know if someone was alive and worth saving, or dead.

"Could it have just...y`know malfunctioned?" Yondu suggested hopefully, sometimes technology wasn't always reliable. Perhaps the girl was still alright. Happily spending time with her dad. 

"Unlikely" The arcturan replied displeased, "the chip also registers body heat and it was transmitting as her body  _cooled_."

So there was no mistake. The girl was gone, far away from her loving aunt and cousin, and cold on a foreign planet. 

It occured to Yondu that Peter could have been the one to have met his end like that. If the second engine on the Eclector hadn't malfunctioned when it did, Stakar probably would have shipped Peter to Ego himself, and not given the mission to Yondu. It could have been Peter, the silly little terran that loved to sing, dance and ask dumbass questions. 

“I am responsible for her death....I don't know how I can atone for this." Stakar interrupted Yondu's mulling, "We`re very certain that this has happened to all the children Ego has had delivered to him." The ravager commander was very obviously upset, and rightfully so. Whether he had meant to or not, he was indeed the reason that the girl had died.

Stakar was a strong leader, a fierce fighter and wise beyond his years. There was even an old wives tale whispered within the ravager ranks that Stakar had re-lived his life multiple times, and had retained some memories from them. He almost supernaturally seemed to know when dangers threatened the Ravagers, and were usually able to avoid disastrous scenarios before most of them even happened. Despite the arcturans infamy with the law all over the galaxy, he was also known for having a soft spot in his heart for children. The rule of no deals involving children had come into effect after he took command. Slavery was also not something the ravagers were allowed to be an accessory to, or partake in. Total expulsion was the punishment for disobeying this rule, and a lifetime of being shunned by your former comrades. 

“You didn't know.” Yondu mumbled, a little bit disturbed to see Stakar so discomposed. Yondu felt the anger and the pure _regret_ that rolled off him as if in waves. “You didn't force her to neither, she agreed to be your spy.” 

“I shouldn't have assumed that Ego wouldn't hurt his own children.” Stakar replied gloomily, "It was extremely... _naive_ of me." The man took another gulp of his drink and proceeded to tell Yondu about what they had learned from the girl.

She had told them that Ego used to be alone on his planet, but had traveled the galaxy in search of companionship. At some point he met Yaoung's mother and claimed to fall hopelessly in love with her. When Yaoung had asked him why she had never even _met_ him before when he was so _in love_ with her mother, he had been evasive but seemingly very remorseful. He had then shown her the  _magic trick_ , at least that was how the girl had described it, and asked her to do it herself.

She had tried, naturally, but she was unable to do what Ego wanted her to do. In between, Ego had allowed her to to rest and explore the seemingly empty planet. She had been struck with how completely alone she felt, not an insect, animal or other person in sight anywhere she went. Yet there was something eerie with the feeling she had when she walked around, almost as if someone was watching her. A nervous feeling like a pit in her stomach.

As her training had eventually proven entirely fruitless as the days went by, Yaoung had expressed worry over Ego`s  increasingly sour mood. He seemed irritable, and she had heard him mumbling about "another disappointment". She sent a message that if it continued, she wanted to be picked up as soon as possible. She was beginning to get scared. Ego`s power had not carried over to her, and he was  _extensively_ unhappy about it. 

It was not long after this message was received that the tracker had warned them that Yaoung was no longer alive.

"We didn't find out what he wanted with her, or what he planned to do if she indeed had inherited his power. Nevertheless, we plan to sneak onto the planet and do a little sleuthing." Ivo spoke up, "We need find out what he's doing with the kids, but for now... the only thing left to discuss is the boy."

Yondu didn't quite know where to start, "Welp...he's an odd one. I can tell you that."

The two other ravagers listened avidly as the centaurian divulged about Peter's mother, his demented grandfather, the other children at the orphanage and everything else in between the kid had felt like talking about. That Peter had seemed to adapt to living on the Eclector very quickly, really liked his little ravager lessons, and had been practically glued to Kraglin since the very beginning. Being kidnapped didn't really seem to faze the boy either, it was mostly because he thought it was accidental and that someone had tried to eat him. Still, he realistically should not be as accepting of his situation as he was.

"We`ve asked some of the other ravagers if someone in their families would be able to take him in." Stakar said after Yondu had finished filling them in on Peter, "There were a few who would be willing to take him in if needed, and we narrowed it down to two families on Berhert and one on Xandar." The families were naturally someone that had a relative within the ravagers. Some people thought that most Ravagers didn't have families, it went against their perception of ravagers as nothing but loveless criminal scum that didn't care for anybody or anything. The truth was that the galaxy could be a very rough place, and many of them did what they did to provide for the people they loved. 

Yondu did not personally know the Ravagers on Xandar and Berhert that Stakar had contacted, but those planets would be the closest to looking like Terra. Hopefully it wouldn't feels so strange to Peter. He would probably have it nice on either, really. Both planets were relatively safe, developed and friendly to different species. He could grow up there, and be happy with his surrogate family. Who knows, maybe he would officially join the ravagers when he got older..but...

“Y`know..." Yondu hesitated. Was what he was about to say _really_ what he wanted? "I know I'm probably gonna regret this`un...but I think Peter likes sleeping in Kraglin`s room. For now.”

Ivo blinked but started laughing heartily. He stopped, however, when he saw the serious look on Yondu`s face. "You?!" the old hraxian said baffled. Slightly insulting if you were to ask Yondu, but not very surprising. It felt like a joke even to him.

"You don't have to do that." Stakar said in an amused tone, "You can give Peter to us and we will make sure he is taken care of. We`ll find him a new family where Ego won`t think to look for him."

"What if you he don't like `em then? Who would look after him on the Starhawk?" Yondu asked exasperated, he gestured to the old hraxian "Ivo? He was Kraglin`s guardian for six years and look how that turned out...still a _mess_.”

"I can't but agree" the hraxian said flippantly, "If i had done a better job he would be a bit more selective when it comes to his mates _."_

Yondu tensed. He knew the older hraxian didn't _really_ approve of their relationship. Ivo had indeed practically raised Kraglin, and there was a slight bitterness in knowing how much Ivo disapproved of them. Not because he had anything against interspecies couples, mind. It mostly stemmed in the fact that Yondu had, admittedly, been a complete a-hole towards Kraglin on more than one occasion before he was able to admit to himself that he actually liked the skinny hraxian. Kraglin was the sort to forgive and forget, Ivo was not.

Stakar snapped his fingers once to grab the attention of the two trying to glare a hole in each others heads, "Are you _really_ sure about this, Yondu? Children aren't exactly a walk in the park, nevermind _ravager_ kids."

Of course Yondu knew. Stakar would usually go the extra mile to release prisoners or slaves when he could. "You can own, buy or steal a lot of things in this world, but never people." he often said. Yondu had been a young adult when he was freed from the Kree. He had seen Stakar`s children, and all the other foundlings that the arcturan seemed to attract, grow from snotty brats to rambunxious teenagers. He had even been "babysitting" from time to time when it was asked of him too, and it had been hellish. The only kid that Yondu had been able to stand was Kraglin because he was so much more quiet and calm compared to the other kids. Which shouldn't suggest that Kraglin wasn't a troublemaker occasionally, he was just _way_ more subtle about it than the others. 

"Face it, you need stop picking up every stray you see, Stakar" Ivo drawled,"most of the time the Starhawk is just a few chilluns short to being officially called a kindergarten. Let them. Should be interesting."

The arcturan seemed to be considering it. "and Kraglin? Is he as  _enthusiastic_?"

“I haven't talked to him about it. " Yondu admitted, "but I know he really likes the kid."

Stakar leaned back in his seat, thinking. He closed his eyes, and exhaled slowly. He was silent for a while before he sat up, and grinned at his first mate. “Hell, you always said you wanted grandkids.” Stakar mumbled mirthfully, hitting Ivo in the side with an elbow. 

Ivo just scoffed, “This ain't what I pictured.”

"Yer fine with it?" Yondu asked a little bit surprised, he wasn't really sure if the man would agree. He had actually imagined protests from him. At least a speech about how difficult children were, responsibility and that Yondu needed to take this seriously or something.

"I made you a captain because I trust you, Yondu" Stakar smiled, "If I can trust you with a ship and a crew, I can trust you with one kid."

* * *

Peter adjusted his backpack slightly, it was a little bit heavier than usual because of the things he had stolen at the bazaar. He blew some strands of hair out of his eyes, and kept following the tall hraxian that was walking in front of him.

The man seemed to know exactly where to go, and lead them through the backstreets easily. The farther in they went, the more it seemed to look more like a slum than anything else. There was garbage scattered around, and clothes hanging out to dry on wires between the houses. 

They walked past a hobo that was sleeping under a thin blanket on the side of the path. Holding an empty bottle like a weird teddy bear, and snoring loudly.

They eventually came to a stone archway that entered into a small courtyard. Peter looked around and his eyes were drawn to a young man, maybe a bit older than Kraglin, with slicked back blonde hair. He was dressed in black and blue clothes that reminded him a lot about the uniforms that was used on the Eclector. He had something that looked like an air rifle resting in his hands as he sat languidly on top of a few barrels that were stacked up against the wall. He looked like a human, but like before, Peter had no way of knowing if he was. 

"Ey!" The blonde jumped down, walked up to them, and placed his hand on Kraglins shoulder. The hraxian mirrored the action. "Waa gwaan, little brother...did you get taller?" 

"A little..." Kraglin admitted as they both let their hands fall back to their sides, "so the responsible triplet is guarding the back door while his sisters are...where?"

"You know them. In a bar somewhere." the blonde rolled his eyes and suggested that they should go eat while they waited for Yondu and Stakar to finish talking.

"Another time, maybe?" Kraglin said apologetic, and inclined his head towards Peter. 

That made the young man look at Peter, "Right...the terran. So, _you_ are Peter J`son Quill."

"Why does he know my name?" Peter whispered, and hid behind Kraglin for what felt like the hundredth time. It was so weird that people he had never met seemed to know him. 

Kraglin rolled his eyes and let out something akin to a growl as he pushed Peter towards the man, "Unless we`re in a shootout, stop hiding behind me."

"Hey, kiddo!" The blonde said enthusiastically and offered Peter his hand, "I'm John." 

".. _.John?_ " Peter asked baffled as he shook the alien`s hand, that was clearly what he said, right?

"I know. It's a weird name." John replied self deprecatingly, as he fastened the air rifle to his back. "Ma said it was _exotic_ or somethin`." 

"No. No, it's not. You have the most normal name I've heard since I left earth! " Peter exclaimed surprised, all this time he had thought all the aliens had weird names. "I know at least three people named John. Four now!"

The blonde archurian looked bewildered for a moment, before his face split into a wide grin, "I guess mom was right when she said it was exotic. It's terran? Wow."

John told them to head in and meet the others, he was on guard duty for the moment, just in case someone had gotten wind of Ravagers meeting up. It had never been an issue before, but now that the Nova Corp had started to reform Irma`s constabulary, they may patrol more often.

The inside of the eatery was kind of dark and murky. There was an unidentified smoky smell in the air and there wasn't really a lot of people there. It was lit up by lamps that seemed filled with blue glowing water. 

"I did it, Yondu" Peter exclaimed happily when he spotted him. Yondu and two others were sitting in a booth. He was kind of glad to see the sour faced centaurian, mostly to show him that he could _so_ steal stuff without being caught again.

“Sirs” Kraglin greeted the men sitting opposite Yondu. He took a pointed look at the pipe the elder white haired man had before him on the table, "That shit is gonna kill you." he stated.

"Kind of the point, brat." the man replied grumpily, "I`m old as fuck and trying to speed shit up."

“We just finished talking about the... _cargo_ issue." the man with the black hair said and gestured towards the unoccupied seats next to Yondu "and it would seem we have found a solution.” Peter sat down in a stool next to Yondu, and Kraglin sat down next to him. 

Peter was really scrutinising the dark haired man, a look of confusion on his face. He looked a bit older, but Peter swore knew that face.

“What is it, boy?” the man asked, he looked genuinely curious as to why the boy was staring so intently.

Peter averted his eyes for a split second, seemingly trying to find out what to say, He bit his lip before speaking up, “You... look a _lot_ like Rocky Balboa.”

The ravagers looked oddly at him, not really having a answer for the boy`s odd statement.

“Whom or what is a _Rocky Balboa_?” he asked curiously, leaning forward interested.

Peter explained that it was a boxer. Actually, not a real one but one from a very _very_ popular movie. "I don't remember what his real name is though, but he looks just like you!" 

“This is Stakar Ogord, and he sure ain't terran” Yondu told Peter, "He's the leader of all the ravager factions."

"All of them?" Peter giggled a little, "So that means he's your boss." He had though Yondu was his own boss. He certainly did not act like he had a boss.

Peter took another look at Stakar, he looked older than Rocky but the similarities were undisputable. He finally said, “maybe there aren't enough faces to last the whole universe or something..." Someone at the orphanage had claimed that everybody had a doppelganger somewhere. Maybe Rocky`s was this space pirate.

He then looked at the white haired male next to Stakar, "I`m Peter!" he said, expecting the other to answer.

"I know." The man replied.

"Who are you?" he tried again.

"Ivo." He replied, "I`m Stakar`s first mate."

Peter was about to ask him something else when Yondu whistled at Kraglin, and the hraxian instantly turned to look at him. What followed were a series of long and short whistles and clicks from Yondu. Kraglin answered with a few less practiced whistles and clicks of his own, it sounded kind of like a conversation. Then it struck Peter, maybe it _was._  Why couldn't he understand it? Both Stakar and Ivo seemed to pay close attention to what they were saying. Did they understand?

Peter pulled on Yondu`s arm to get his attention, “Why are you whistling?”

“It's a language called centaurian” Stakar answered before the blue skinned alien had a chance to, "Yondu is a centaurian so that's how they speak on their planet"

Peter's eyes grew large again, “A language where you _just_ whistle?" That suddenly made sense. Sometimes Yondu would whistle like that, never in a specific melody or pattern, often when Kraglin was close by. Where they talking over his head? "Can you teach me? I already learned to whistle from my mom!” He demonstrated this by putting his index and thumb in his mouth and letting out a high whistle that made multiple heads in the eatery turn towards them. Peter didn't notice, but looked at Yondu expectantly, “what did that mean?"

"Fuck all. You just made a loud noise." Yondu chuckled, "if you really want to learn I'll teach ya some day."

A woman with green skin and red tinted hair came over and asked if they wanted something to eat. They ordered a few various dishes, Peter asked for spaghetti and tried to explain what it was to her. 

"Oh you mean _ooona,_ boyo" she said, "For sure, I'll ask the cook if we got any left."

“So..” Stakar turned to Peter, “I heard that you had a little  _lesson_ today. How did it go?”

Peter seemed to think for a second before he realised what the man was asking about. The boy excitedly emptied his backpack of stolen goods and put them on the table until there was a fine mix of random items and foodstuffs there. 

“I have no idea what these are but Yondu owes me candies now” Peter said and looked expectantly at the centaurian who was surveying the content.

"Hold yer horses, kiddo" Yondu held up a hand, "payment comes after the goods are examined"

"What?" Peter asked perplexed, "Come on, I did it already."

“Listen to the Captain, Peter." Kraglin chastised, "You need to be patient."

Yondu picked up something that looked like a polished rock, turning it over in his hand before putting it back down, then inspecting the next thing. He did it with all them, humming sometimes as he inspected them. When he was done he nodded and said, "So what we got was..a rock, two vegetables, a book about hats and _what_ is this ball thing?" Yondu pointed to a ball filled with green tinted liquid.

"That.." Ivo replied, "is only thing of real value here."

"What is it?" Peter asked, he reached for the glass ball and looked properly at it. He hadn't really noticed much about it when he took it. He thought it was some kind of snowglobe. He had a few back on earth. He had just quickly put it in his backpack and left. Now that he looked properly at it, inside was a tiny snake like...fish?

It wiggled towards him and Peter dropped the ball in his surprise, Yondu stopped the glass orb before it rolled off the table and shattered on the ground.

"I didn't know it was alive. I thought it was a toy, honest" Peter said horrified as he accepted the orb from the centautian, he couldn't remember who he stole it from but they were probably going to miss their little fish. "I didn't mean to steal someone's pet."  

"Not as much a pet as it is a local delicacy," Ivo informed them "it was probably gonna be an ingredient in someone's dinner."

"Why would anyone eat this? It's so small" Kraglin picked up the orb and examined it closer, "barely a morsel."

"Who it looking so fancy for?" Yondu mused as the little creature did a few loops inside the glass ball, "It's got a little tail veil and colorful scales...swimming around all cute like."

"They are very flavorful I've been told." Stakar said, "They have this little bladder thing that tastes real good so people pop `em in their stew or soups."

There was an _oh_ from Yondu and a look of consideration on his face. "You are not gonna eat it!" Peter exclaimed and held the ball to his chest protectively. He knew the man was thinking about it. Nobody was gonna eat this fish!

"Don`t worry...they don't live very long" Stakar added, earning a pointed glare from Kraglin, "What?"

"Anyway...Snack aside, it seems like everything is in order" Yondu said and fished out the promised candy from within his coat, "Good job, kid."

Peter accepted his reward with a grin, the candy orbs looked just as delicious as when he had decided to try to steal them. They looked like beautiful marbles.A waiter came over with the food they had ordered, and Peter was told to save his candy for later. 

There was little plates full of different types of finger food, and Peter was given an oddly turquoise drink and a plate of what looked like thick light green spaghetti in a white sauce. He was about to pick one up with his utensil but realised it was _moving_ “It's alive!!”

“‘s not alive...just a plant” the waiter said, "as freshly cut as they can get. Don't knock it until you've tried it" She excused herself and left them with their food.

Peter grimaced and picked a tentacle up with the two forked utensil, it squirmed. The others must have seen how hesitant he was to take a bite so Kraglin picked up one of the green tentacle like vines and put it in his mouth. Taking great amusement in Peter`s horrified expression as he slurped the still moving thing slowly in.

“Yummy”

“Don’t play with your food, boy." Ivo chastised Kraglin, who in return just grinned and whispered to Peter that he could play with his food all he wanted. Peter swallowed and picked a vine up before he hastily put it in his mouth. He chewed very fast so he wouldn't need to feel it move and swallowed. The ravagers looked at him in silence, waiting for the verdict. 

"It's ...good. Like pasta alfredo" he said. It was good, at least, when you overlooked the wiggling. 

* * *

After they had eaten a little Kraglin excused himself, and walked outside. He needed a break, not that it wasn't nice to catch up with the others, but thinking about leaving Peter with Stakar today was...sad. Would he even see him again after this? The possibilities were slim. 

"Got boring in there?" John asked as he waved him over to the large barrel he was sitting on, "Come. Drink with me!"

He pulled out a hip flask and shook it a few times before he offered it to the hraxian. Kraglin accepted it and drank a gulp, coughing slightly at the burning sensation it left. This was clearly a homebrew, and John clearly hadn't gotten any better at it since the last time he tried it. The blonde laughed as he took the flask back, "Ain't ya glad the kid is out of yer hair?"

Kraglin didn't answer, he didn't feel cheerful. He kept thinking about things like if Peter be okay with whomever Stakar was going to drop him off with? Would he be happy? Would he be safe?

"I dunno, man. It feels weird." Kraglin sat down next to the barrel, and rested his head on the wall behind him. "I've kinda gotten used to have him around, y`know."

The arcturan nodded in understanding and took a sip of his flask, "Ya are gonna forget about him soon enough. You shouldn't have to worry about stuff like this anyways."

Kraglin didn't want to comment on that either. If anything Peter was the one who was going to forget about him and Yondu. He knew he certainly wasn't`going to forget about Peter.

They talked a little about how things were going with each of them. They hadn't seen each other in a while, or at least, not face to face. Ravager factions didn`t usually meet up unless there was something really important going on. Usually they would just communicate electronically.

"Hey, do you have any of those pills Tullk`s wife makes? If she still does that." the blonde asked casually, "Tara asked me to ask ya." 

"I got some. Of course she still makes them. It's her main source of income." Kraglin smiled, "did you think she was too busy with the kids, and the bar?" 

"She usually sends extra with Tullk so that he can sell it on the black market where it will fetch the best price." Kraglin searched through his pockets and eventually produced a little red box, he opened it and counted the little black pills inside of it. After a little consideration he removed two of the pills, closed the box with an audible click and offered it to John. He put the two pills he took for himself in a pocket, he might need some after today. He would need some help with feeling happy after everything was said and done. "3.200 Units."

"Are you low balling yourself for Tara?" John cackled as he accepted the little red box, "I'll have her wire 4000."

There was a loud whistle and suddenly Yondu`s yaka arrow swirled around them stopped in front. "Now now kiddies, not doing drugs while on duty, I hope?"

John glared, "Stop, yer gonna nail one of us in the back of our head one of these days!"

"Please...you think I wouldn`t recognize the back of Kraglin`s head?" Yondu chuckled and made a lewd tongue wiggle towards the hraxian. 

"Ok...Gross" John stated, but let out an _oi_ when Yondu snatched the flask he was holding and downed what was left in one big gulp. 

He grimaced "Flark, did you brew that Orloni bile yourself?" he tossed the now empty flask towards the arcturan, "Now piss off, Junkie. We have things to discuss that don't concern you."

John clicked his tongue in disapproval, "Junkie? That's rich coming from yo" his sentence was cut off as the blonde was suddenly face to face with the glowing Yaka arrow. The centaurian had used it from time to time when he was younger to _herd_ the kids he was looking after, when talking to then wasn't enough. None of them had really gotten hurt, but the point was sharp and they had never really wanted to test him. John capitulated and stepped away from the weapon in his face. Walking towards the eatery entrance, they could hear him mumble "Can`t even take a second to say hi like a normal fucking.."the last words were cut off as he slammed the door shut.

"So...what are ya looking so gloomy fer?" Yondu asked as he pocketed his arrow, he looked a little worried now that they were alone. 

Kraglin knew Yondu was able to pick up feelings, especially when there was only one person present, so he tried to mask it. "I'm not." Kraglin lied, making sure his face looked content even if he didn't feel happy in the slightest.

"Don't try to bullshit me on this." Yondu deadpanned, "Fuck sake, Kraglin. Your face may be smiling but yer eyes sure ain't! Is it because of the kid?"

"So what...it doesn't matter. Peter is going to be fine." Kraglin said, turning slightly away. 

"Yeah, he is. It's gonna be rough though...that kid has a lot to learn." Yondu commented, Kraglin just nodded. Peter was already mind blown over all the things he had learned from the night when they picked him up on Terra. Imagine all they new things just waiting for him to discover them.

"It's not like Stakar hasn't done this before." the hraxian mumbled, "He's an old hand at raising kids by now" 

"Oh no no _noo_ " the centaurian corrected as he waved a finger "It's going to be rough for _us._ "

 _Us?_ Kraglin blinked confused, "Wha` do ya mean?"

"You see.  _We`_ re going to take care of him" Yondu explained, "and make sure that his kid murdering father never gets his hands on him."

Kraglin blinked "His _what_?" 

Yondu made him sit down on one of the barrels and told him about what he had learned from Stakar. Kraglin went through a torrent of emotions as the horrific details about Ego and his children were uncovered. Incredulity, anger, and pity for the children whirling around inside of him. To think that they could have delivered Peter to this...vile creature.

"Yondu...We know  _nothin`_  `bout kids." the hraxian eventually said. What could they possibly offer Peter?

"Maybe not _much"_ The captain concurred with a shrug, "but we have been doing better than _our_ parents so far haven't we?"

"What?" Kraglin said and looked at Yondu incredulously. 

"For example.  _I_ haven't sold the kid into slavery..." Yondu said and Kraglin just closed his eyes and groaned, pinching the bridge of his nose with his fingers. "and you haven't lost sight of him in a crowded area allowing some creep from an assassin cult to snatch him. We`re doing great!"

"That is a _really_ stupid argument!" the hraxian hissed, crossing his arms. That wasn't parenting, they had just been looking after him.

"I'm serious" Yondu chuckled, "there is no possible way to fuck it up worse than _our_ parents did." Yondu usually never talked about his parents, they were something he had erased almost entirely from his very mind. Kraglin didn't even remember his. The people that had taught them, and been there for them when they needed them had become their family. Yondu seemed to think that they could be the same for Peter. 

"He don't need us. He needs a place where he's safe. " Kraglin argued, he wouldn't be safe with them in their line of work. Sure, they had survived just fine, but accidents could happen.

"I can't think of many places that's safer than a ship full of ravagers." the centaurian replied, "If yer worried we can`t take care of him, don`t be. You`ve been doin` it for weeks already, mostly alone."

He didn't know what else to say. Why did Yondu think they could do this? Peter wasn't like them. He had lived on terra with his mom, blissfully unaware of the dangers and terrors lurking out in the universe. "He's just so...soft, Yondu. We wouldn't do him any good."

"Look. We are going to make sure Ego never finds him," Yondu said with finality "and if Ego ever _does_ find him...I'll make sure that Peter _ain`t_ soft."

The hraxian didn't want to argue anymore. He liked Peter, and didn't want him to disappear to orphanage or adoptive family far away. What if Ego learned the truth and started looking for him? Who would protect him then? Would he and Yondu be good role models for him...no. But if Peter was indeed in danger, perhaps it was best for everyone that he didn't stay helpless.

Yondu grinned, he already knew he had won the other over. Kraglin let out a bark of laughter, before he mumbled "This is going to be a disaster, capt'n."

Yondu cackled and hooked his arm around the taller man's waist as they walked back towards the entrance. "Absolutely, babe."

Inside the eatery Peter was talking animatedly to Stakar. "And then Rocky has Apollo on the ropes and" the words were cut off as the boy yawned and rubbed his eyes. "and then he..."

Yondu cleared his throat and the arcturian and terran looked up. "We should clear out for now. We`re going to take a round around the planet while the ship is getting fixed...see the sights bla..bla.."

"Yeah. Seems like Peter is about ready to fall over soon" Stakar smiled, "Don't lose focus, what happened in the fight? Did Rocky win?"

"Um...it was a tie, I guess" Peter shrugged, "He didn't really win but he proved that he could have."

Stakar looked very disappointed, "Now that's too bad...My terran twin isn't very remarkable, is he?" 

They told Peter to finish eating the last pieces of food, and left the eatery, gathering outside in the courtyard.

Some other ravagers in Stakar`s crew had been with them, sitting at other tables but staying out of the conversation. They now gathered and waited to leave with their captain. They were not here for leisure like Yondu and his crew. 

"How big are the chances of you babysitting for a night?" Yondu asked Ivo bluntly. Peter was busy talking to John, asking him if his gun could melt people so that only the skeletons were left.

"I can sit _on_ him if that's what you meant." Ivo replied sarcastically, "but if you think i'm gonna babysit on my night off yer more of a dumbass than I thought. This is _your_ mess now."

"That is the unfortunately the life of a parent, Yondu." Stakar said with mock regret, he snuck an arm around the centaurians shoulders. "No more can you two stumble home at six in the morning, in an alcohol or drug induced haze, and screw like felisians in heat. But go to sleep at ten because your brat wakes up at five...for some reason."

“Really? I don't recall Ivo being my guardian stopped him from doin` _any_ of that.” Kraglin commented, and Ivo just cuffed the younger hraxian affectionately on the back of the head and pulled him close so that their heads touched. “Don’t spoil the brat too much. He needs to toughen up, ya hear” He whispered.

Kraglin let out something akin to a purr and hugged the older man back, “Yes,  _uncle."_

* * *

After saying their goodbyes, the trio headed towards the closest dock where they boarded a packet boat that would ferry them over the sea towards the next harbour town. They could have taken one of the quicker and newer boats, but they were a lot more expensive. It would take just under an hour, and after they boarded and found a set of seats away from the few other passengers.

Peter spent a lot of time examining his fish or looking out of the window to see if other creatures were lurking in the water. He asked if there were monsters like the kraken or the leviathan in space. He hadn't been sure if they were real on earth, but after all the things he had seen in his brief time in outer space, why wouldn't they be?

There was a comfortable silence over the three, as the hum of the boat engine continued to putter them towards their next destination. 

For the two ravagers it seemed to be sort of a relief in knowing that Peter would stay with them. The boy wasn't an uncertain element anymore, they knew now that they didn't need to worry about what would become of him. It had been settled, and it felt right.

"Is the floor supposed to be wet?" Peter suddenly asked, looking up from studying his little snake snack fish.

Yondu had been sitting with his feet on the opposite seat so he hadn't noticed, but the floor that had been dry when the ferry started was now covered in a thin layer of water. "What in tha hell?"

"Attention" a monotone voice announced over the Pa system, "We are currently having a...situation."

"Should we be worried, at all?" Kraglin asked, putting his feet up on the seat and away from the moist planks.

"The boat is taking in water" the voice supplied, "but we will probably reach our destination before it becomes too bad." There was another long silence before the voice finished with, "The attendant will still sell refreshments." Sure enough, the attendant was still sitting near the front, cool as a cucumber and not showing even a hint of worry on his face.

Yondu wasn't very bothered, neither did any of the other passengers seem to think that they were about to drown. "You can swim, right?" he asked Peter casually as he turned a page in the catalogue Kraglin had given him earlier. When the boy nodded and went back to studying his fish, the centaurian went back to reading about the treasures that had been at the auction where Umir lost the painting. 

"I guess the tickets were cheap for a reason, huh?" Kraglin mumbled and went back to staring out the window at the small waves and city in the distance.

Peter stood up and surprisingly crossed over and sat down next to Yondu. He snuck a peek at the pages of the catalogue, "whats that?" He pointed to the Merelliama painting that the centaurian had been studying.

"A painting we're gonna steal." Yondu replied bluntly. The boy replied with an _oh_ before he bit his lip and mumbled, "maybe I can help?" 

"Negative." Yondu stated, and turned the page. "you're too small fer stuff like that."

"But I did good today. You said so." Peter bristled, he crossed his arms and scowled "I could _so_ steal a painting!"

"Oh come on, Captain." Kraglin added with mock seriousness in his voice "after all he did steal that _very expensive_ goldfish." Yondu whistled a "Quiet!" and the hraxian held his hands up. 

"What's that?" Peter asked as Yondu turned the page again.

"It's a Flerken statuette" Yondu answered, "decorated with gems."

"No...That's a cat." Peter stated matter-of-factly, "They are pets on earth." 

"I`m gonna go out on a limb here and guess that terran cats ain't monsters that can shoot tentacles out of their mouths, eat almost anything, and can teleport you to other realities via their guts." Yondu asked as he turned to another page. 

"That's not something that's real!" Peter claimed, and looked at the centaurian like he was insane. "You made that up!"

"Did he, though?" Kraglin chuckled and winked at Peter. The boy swallowed and tried to shake the image of a monsterous kitty that could swallow him whole out of his mind. 

Despite the leak, they did arrive unscated on the other side of the lake, even if their shoes were a little wetter than they would have preferred. Peter and Kraglin was wringing the water from their socks next to the dock as Yondu _talked_ to the staff about a refund. There were a lot of angry words and gestures being exchanged until the captain of the packet boat capitulated and gave the centaurian the money back.

Peter had started to yawn and rub his eyes on the boat so they just went for the closest hotel or inn they could find.

It wasn`t as fancy as the last one, but it was a decent place to hunker down for the night. They paid for two rooms connected by a door like last time, and were quick to place Peter in his own room. Giving him the same warning about entering their room without knocking. Hoping the terran would fall asleep quickly so that they could finally be alone. 

“Ya got _more_ of `em sweets?” Yondu asked casually as they removed their coats and boots. Kraglin didn't look up but pulled out a purple and blue candy that Peter had insisted was a lollipop out of his mouth and waved it, “last one.”

“They any good?” the centaurian asked, he had never been big on sweets. He liked them well enough, but enjoyed fruit a lot more than the slightly artificial taste of most candies. Fruit reminded him slightly of his childhood on Centauri-IV. Of fingers sticky and colored after picking berries, raindrops hitting the foliage in the woods, the rustle of leaves in the wind and the scent of petrichor. 

“Pretty good” Kraglin crushed the hard candy between his jaws, and pulled the centaurian against his body.

The taller hraxian initiated a soft kiss, almost hesitant, as if asking if it was ok. His lips were soft and sweet from the sugary treats, and Yondu knotted his fists in Kraglin`s shirt and pulled him closer. The centaurians tongue slipped inside his mouth more demanding. For a few seconds It felt like they just melted into each other, nothing else existed for those seconds until the moment their lips parted.

“Delicious” Yondu licked his lips, pupils dilated and intense, “the candy was kinda good too.”

He suddenly pushed Kraglin backwards so he fell onto the mattress with a grunt, “Do you remember when we first got this job, and I told you that you would be punished if it was as suspicious I thought it was?”

"Yessir" Kraglin replied as Yondu pulled his shirt off with a wide grin and chucked it in the general direction of his coat and bag.  

"As it turns out yer Captain was right." Yondu leaned over the hraxian who had a hungry look in his eyes, pinning him to the mattress under him.  "an` he gotta punish ya, boy." 

Kraglin purred expectantly and nuzzled the captain's throat, then giving it a slow lick.  

“Y`know...It's a shame Peter is so big" Kraglin moaned quietly as Yondu`s hands crept down his torso, still mindful of the child in the next room. 

"Huh? Why?" Yondu asked surprised, that was a little bit off the current topic.

"I think it would have been..." Kraglin surprised Yondu by hooked a finger in his pouch and pulling it out before letting it go, making the centaurian grunt at the odd stretch and feeling " _hot_ ta see ya carry him in yer pouch."

Somewhere in the most primitive parts of the centaurians brain the words _make babies_ started flashing very fast and very angrily. “You just watch it, male centaurians carry the kids...when their _mates_ gives birth to them.”

Kraglin coo`ed intrigued, "You wanna try for another one _already_?"

Hell yes! Yondu`s brain supplied. "Hell no. We're both getting fixed." Yondu answered, and placed a wet kiss on the others neck that made Kraglin very uncharacteristically giggle.

They tried to stifle their laughter in between more increasingly heated licks and kisses, but the mood was abruptly disturbed when animated knocks banged on their door. They stiffened and kept quiet, hoping that Peter would go back to his own bed. There was silence for a little while before the knocking returned more insistently and Yondu sighed, his head dropping backwards a bit, “What!”

“Hey...can I come in?” the small voice on the other side of the door asked.

“Put on that terran doohickey and go the fuck to sleep, boy!” Yondu ground out.

“I'm out of batteries!" the voice whined, "I`m not sleepy anymore...and what if the mindsucker climbs into my room and under the bed at night!?”

"The what?" Yondu asked, pulling slightly away from the hraxian he was currently straddling. Damn, he shouldn't have told Peter about the flerkens neither. 

“It`s ok, kid." Kraglin said slightly dramatically, "I think there's a monster in my bed too!” Yondu shushed him and Kraglin bit his lip trying to hold back a groan when Yondu shifted.

“...Please. I`ll go right to sleep after. Promise!” the voice sounded more insistent and distressed."...Please, Kraglin!"

That made Kraglin push Yondu off, and walk over to the door separating the two rooms. He opened it to reveal Peter in the pyjamas he had stolen from the last hotel, holding the glass ball with the fish in his hands. “Fine, what is it?” 

“and can it wait until tomorrow?" Yondu added, putting on his shirt again. Peter looked between the two slightly disheveled ravagers curiously, asking Kraglin why his cheeks looked blue. 

"Um..." Kraglin clicked his tongue in quick succession a few times before he said, "This room is too hot. Now...If you don't need nothin` go back to bed."

"No. I need to talk with you right now!" the boy said in a serious and unusually stern voice. He gestured towards the bed, inviting them to sit down. They both did, one at each side of the bed, looking at the child expectantly. Peter climbed up at the foot of the big mattress and sat down cross legged, looking at the two ravagers. 

“My mom used to call me Star-lord.” Peter began before he looked up at them with determined expression on his face, “I think she called me that, because my daddy is an _alien._ ”

Yondu and Kraglin exchanged a glance, but waited for Peter to finish speaking. They already knew Peter suspected this, but they had been really careful to not confirm his suspicions in any way.

"Mom said he was made of white light, like an angel and..." Peter paused, looking for what to say "I... I want to try to find him. Please help me!" 

There was two options before them now. Pretend to not know about Ego and bring it up when Stakar had finished his _investigation_ of the man, or just flat out tell him. But should they? Telling the nine year old about his father that had murdered, as far as they knew, _all_ his half-siblings would be a gut-wrenching shock, or at the very least... it would a damper on their vacation.

“Space is big, Peter. Really big! An`I don`t know about anyone else,but I have never met an alien made of light. ” the hraxian tried to dissuade him.

"I know it big" Peter replied, looking down at his feet. "but i would really _really_ like to try." 

"The chances of finding him are slim ta none but sure, kid" Yondu sighed, hoping that this would be the end of tonight's disruption, "We can ask around, but don't expect much."

"YES!" Peter jumped up, bouncing up and down on the mattress a few times in his excitement, "Yes! Thank you so so  _sooo_ much!"

“Yeah yeah yeah" Yondu got up and started leading the boy back to his own bed, "Nighty night. _Star-lad._ ”

"Wait!" Peter exclaimed and ducked under the arm attempting to return him to his room. He crossed to the other side of the room, out of Yondu`s reach. "Can I just...sleep with you two?"

"Wha? Hell no!" Yondu scoffed, and crossed his arms. 

"Ain't you a bit old to sleep with adults?" Kraglin asked hesitantly, Peter had not seemed to have any problems with sleeping alone so this was a little bit strange.

"You two are sharing a bed again" Peter observed, gesturing again to the big mattress Kraglin was sitting on. "C`mon! It's so big you won't know Im here even!"

"I don't think it's very..." Kraglin tried looking for the best word, "very..."

"The word yer looking for is  _appropriate_ " Yondu growled, "Go back to your own bed, boy!"

"But what if the mindsucker gets me?" the terran squeaked, "It doesn't attack people in groups. It's safer in here! I also think I heard meowing!"

"Tha _hell_  is a _mindsucker_?" Yondu nearly shouted. What did he mean by _meowing_? Was the boy scared of Felisians too? Was this punishment from Anthos himself?

"Please." Peter pleaded puppy eyed as he turned to the hraxian, not really bothering with trying to convince Yondu, "I promise I'll fall asleep  _super_ fast"

In that moment, Yondu could even _feel_ Kraglin`s emotion shift from uncertain to something akin to fondness. He patted the space in the middle of the large bed with a sigh, inviting the terran to jump in. Peter wasted no time climbing in and burrowing under the covers with a grin. Yondu was giving the two occupants in the bed the evil eye now. Maybe he should have let Stakar take care of the brat after all, he would have whipped this little terran wuss into shape. _Mindsuckers!_  My big blue ass.

Yondu begrudgingly got in the bed on the other side. Making a point of capturing Kraglin gaze and shooting him a glare as the lights were turned off. Absently he heard Peter whisper about things and aliens he'd seen during the day or his new fish, which he was thinking of naming Alyssa. Kraglin was very basically back-channelling with an "oh really" or an "Uhu" at all the correct places. Yondu was just lamenting the fact that he and Kraglin could be fucking right now.

Peter also asked if they could find him batteries for his walkman, worried that he wouldn't be able to use it anymore. Kraglin reassured him that they would get i working somehow but told him to be quiet and sleep. 

After a while and some shifting, the boys breathing evened out into a pattern of sleep. 

"He ain't sleeping in here with us again" the centaurian whispered grumpily, only answered by a low chuckle. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Chapter title from “Pour some Sugar on Me" by Def Leppard  
> So there you have it.  
> Peter is officially adopted by Yondu and Kraglin, the cute little terran is now a ravager, he stole a fancy goldfish and he started an illustrious cockblocking career.  
> Hooray! I did it! I actually wrote a story in english and over 200 people liked it well enough to give kudos to it.  
> I never knew how difficult it would be to write like this...especially those times when i didn't feel like writing at all.  
> After Disney fell hook line and sinker for a smear campaign by the same people who made up Pizzagate and actually fired James Gunn for some dark jokes he made years ago, I haven't been to inspired. I've even written other things almost done before I felt like I wanted to write on this again.  
> The story took me a year...and has changed a lot from what I originally had in mind.  
> The reason i called the fic "Just an escort mission" is because (for those that don't know) that is what people call babysitting an npc in a video game. Trying to get it from point A to Point B without it getting killed.  
> I might write another fic in this fandom at another time, but not right now.  
> Imagining Yondu and Kraglin when they grew up on the Starhawke with Stakar’s kids was kind of fun, so maybe I’ll write something about that, or when Peter becomes a teenager.  
> Thank you so much for reading this silly little thing and have a lovely october.  
> -Mindless


End file.
